The Dragon Guard (24 page)

“You're always hungry.” Henry stared at Trent with very round eyes behind his glasses. He took them off and rubbed his eyes carefully. He looked as if he wanted to say more but did not.

“We all have to talk,” said Frank firmly.

Mr. and Mrs. Hawkins had said nothing, but she took her handkerchief down from her face at that. She shuddered as she got out, “Tell Rich that if he has so much as touched that filthy beast, he's not welcome home till he cleans up.” She turned about smartly and marched off. Mr. Hawkins gave them an embarrassed shrug before trailing after his wife.

Mrs. Olson's eyes narrowed. “My son is not filthy. What he is, I am not sure. But not filthy.”

“This conversation belongs elsewhere,” echoed McIntire. “My home, I think.” He beckoned toward the last remaining cars and vans in the parking lot. Jason realized bleakly that his team and coach had left without him.

 

“We're not freaks,” Jason said flatly. Although the living room of the McIntire house was crowded, his voice seemed to echo all about those gathered. The muted, tasteful tones of Joanna's decorating in ivory and golds seemed overwhelmed by the people crowded in now, occupying every sitting space available and then the floor.

“Then what are you?”

“What happened out there was some kind of paranormal power, wasn't it?” Frank Callahan leaned a shoulder against the wall, slouched comfortably, both hands in his pockets.

Henry sat curled up on the end of the couch, his arms about his knees, looking rather like an overstuffed sofa pillow. Some color had finally returned to his face. “We can't say what it was. But it wasn't us.”

“Can't or won't?”

“Can't.” Trent rubbed his nose. He reluctantly closed the last lid of the last empty pizza box. Rebecca had brought Rich and Stefan with her, after Bailey finally called Stef in with her Talent of animal sense, luring the bear cub close. Messages had been left for the Squibb family that Henry was with them and not to worry. Ravenous as usual, Stef had eaten nearly a whole pizza by himself. He tried to stifle a burp while licking a finger. No one else had had much appetite.

Joanna gazed at him. “I'm so sorry, Jason. All this time, all this time, I thought your father worried about you because of your heart, like your mother. Never did I think anything like this could . . .” Her voice trailed off, and she shook her head.

He stared at his stepmom a moment, struck by the realization that all her worry, all her care for him, had come out of her promise to protect and nurse a potential time bomb, as his mom had been with her heart defect. No wonder she'd practically suffocated him.

“I want an answer from this Rainwater,” McIntire offered. “And I want it now.” Joanna put her hand on her knee and shook her head.

“Actually,” said Bailey, “so do I.” Her usually cheerful expression was knotted in unhappiness. “I think he owes us that.”

Jason got his crystal out. “Maybe he can say what we can't.” He concentrated with the little strength he seemed to have left, and it was barely enough to bring Gavan to his mind. But the Magicker looked at him, and turned away, with a faint whispering thought that Eleanora had worsened, and he could not leave for the moment. He caught a shadowy vision of Eleanora lying cold and still as death, and he thought of his many nightmares of finding a body just like that. “Gavan, come back!” He clutched at the elder and found coldness blocking him, as Henry rolled back against his chair and grabbed at his temples. He tried to force the block, only to hear Henry moan loudly.

“Jason,” said Trent, holding his wrist. “You're hurting him. Trouble?”

“Seems to be blocked.” Jason retreated in his efforts and Henry sat up, forcing down a deep breath. “Henry's feeling it, too. I can't force it.” Henry gave him a look of desperation, then hid his face in his hands.

“So. No help there, at least not yet.” Jason rubbed his eyes. “We've got to buy some time.”

Stefan's mom sat across from her rumpled son, looking at him with mournful brown eyes. “You cannot stay, my son.”

“Mom . . .”

She shook her head. “You won't say what happened, but something did. All here saw it. Do you think I have no eyes? You will be a freak. American television will hunt you down, until someone makes up a crazy story about what happened. Then it will get even worse.” She held her hand up, as he protested. “You know this is true! You know it.”

“You've all been freaks since you got back from summer camp,” stated Alicia. She balanced her camcorder on her knee.

“Alicia!”

She tilted her head at her mom. “Well, it's true.” She turned back to Jason. “So what happened? Some kind of government experiment? Did you guys all get shot up with ESP or something? I mean, we all thought it was strange you guys got all rounded up as talented and stuff. Not that you aren't. But looking back, it's obvious you were recruited.”

Rich's mother had taken up a guarded stance in the far corner of the living room, handkerchief to her nose, pausing only to pull out a horribly antiseptic smelling spray and spritzing it every ten minutes or so. She had only come because Rich had called and begged her to, and she'd acted as if they could all contaminate her the moment she'd walked in the front door. Now she let out a choked warble, and grabbed for her husband's arm. “Germ warfare!”

“Oh, don't be ridiculous,” Joanna snapped. She blushed then, and leaned back against her sofa, unaccustomed to such outbursts. Jason grinned at her, thinking,
Way to go, Mom!

“Obviously not,” rumbled McIntire. He stared keenly at Jason. “But there have been odd happenings. The old house that burned down last Halloween, for instance.”

“Nothing we did,” Trent offered.

“Today looked like an attack.” Trent's father straightened and walked across the room, as if not wanting to face his son. “In which case, there was nothing you started in October, or today. Would I be right in saying that?”

“We can't tell you,” answered Bailey, Henry, and Trent in unison.

Rich bit his lip and Stef decided to check a different pizza box, on the off chance he'd overlooked a slice or two.

But Jason drew himself up. “Something like that,” he got out, and waited for his throat to tighten and his jaws to lock, as the Vow of Silence promised it would. Other than the vague uneasiness of being in front of everyone, and in deep trouble, he felt nothing. Immediately, everyone's eyes seemed to be on him. He took a step back involuntarily. “We haven't started anything,” he said, feeling a bit lame, and the cords in his neck did tighten then and he wasn't sure if he could get another word out or not.

Rebecca Landau made a small movement with one hand. “I know what it is they're facing, sort of, and they can't tell you, and I've promised not to, but yes . . . they're extraordinary, and they do have powers which will draw attention to them, and may be very dangerous for them. We live in a world which—” She paused. “Well, frankly, it may want to take them apart to see how they do what they do, and they don't even know for sure what they can do. Not to mention people who might want to use them for warfare or covert activities, or just misuse them altogether. I don't think any of us want to risk that.”

Mrs. Olson stared at her son, a large tear sliding down her cheek. “You must go,” she said in her accented voice, words growing thick.

“Mom.”

She shook her head. “No football here. But better than life in a cage.”

“We don't know this,” started Frank Callahan.

“Yeah, Dad, we do,” Trent interrupted. “That's why we can't talk about it, for our own protection. It's
not
witchcraft. There's a good side and a bad side to this and we're on the good, and the others have come after us a couple of times. We don't know what to expect.”

“They need a safe place,” Rebecca said, drawing Bailey close to her and holding one of her hands tightly.

Henry squirmed. He ran a hand over his head, sending up a thatch of dark hair, but he remained silent.

“There isn't any place.” Bailey bit her lip and fell silent.

“I can only think of one place to go,” said Jason slowly. Haven was out. But he had places he could go where he wouldn't take no for an answer.

Trent looked at him. “Where?”

Jason shook his head slowly. There wasn't a lot he could say, in front of everyone.

“Richard!” cried Mrs. Hawkins.

The redhead made a gesture with his hand. “Forget it, Mom. You'd be better off without me, if people come hunting around, you know?”

Henry said, “They'd all be b-b-better off.”

McIntire stood. “You're all leaving together, then?”

“I think we have to.” Jason nodded at his stepfather.

Rebecca said fiercely, “You're not going without me.” Bailey looked up at her mom, and began to cry, softly, silently. “I mean it. Not without me. I know, anyway, so I have to go, right?”

“That would probably be wise.” Trent shifted uneasily. “Do you have a plan for all this, Jason?”

“Not yet. I don't know how to cover our tracks.” He pulled his crystal out. “But I don't think we can wait around to see who else filmed us or took pictures.”

“You just can't disappear,” Rich's mom stammered. “There will be questions asked.”

“We're not going forever. Just a few weeks or so, and nobody will ask questions.”

“The schools . . .”

Trent flexed his fingers. “Schools have computer systems. They might think they know we're gone, but they won't be able to prove it.”

Callahan cleared his throat. “If my son just mentioned hacking, I didn't hear it.”

“I think,” noted McIntire mildly, “that computer manipulation may be the least of his abilities right now. Is there a way we can get hold of you, wherever it is you're going?”

“Not easily, but there's a way.” Jason looked at Bailey who turned red. “Some people have already popped in and out a bit.”

“No.” Joanna rubbed her slender hands together. “I can't do this. I can't just let you go, Jason.”

“I think it's gone beyond your wishes or mine,” McIntire told her.

She shook her head briskly, elegantly coiffed blonde hair flying. “I promised his father. There's a trust there that I have spent a lot of time making sure was met.”

“You've been a great stepmom,” Jason told her.
A little too great
, he thought to himself.

McIntire put his hand on Joanna's knee. “Honey, they all leave, sooner or later. This is sooner, and necessary. You've done what you promised Jarrod.”

Joanna looked at him, her face with that brittle look that meant intense, held back emotions. He wasn't sure if she was going to cry or not. “You make sure,” she said to him, “that you take care of yourself.”

“I will.” He took his crystal out. “Everyone who is going, join me.”

“Wait.” Alicia stood, and held out her camcorder. “Take the tape. Just in case, you know.” She tucked a blonde wing of hair behind her ear.

Trent looked over her elbow. “What's it show, anyway?”

She lifted a shoulder and dropped it, then pushed a few buttons, and the camcorder whirled faintly as if rewinding the tape, and she pushed Preview Play, so that the tiny screen could show her what she'd filmed.

She fast forwarded through standards scenes of the soccer game, including Jason's winning goal, and then the tumble of the Magickers one by one out of the stands. The sky looked dark and very threatening.

Then her camcorder screen went white gold and showed nothing. Frame after frame of . . . nothing. Trent let out a low whistle, and glanced at Jason.

“The energy appears to have wiped the tape out. And, I'll bet Krispy Kreme Doughnuts the cameras don't have a decent picture either.”

“I . . . I didn't do that.” Jason looked at the tiny camcorder screen.

“You can't wipe out memories, though. We still gotta go.” Stef stood reluctantly, the last one to gather at Jason's side. He stared at his mother.

She nodded. “Go, Stefan. You must do this.”

He made a noise that sounded as if the bear cub inside him mourned. “Awww, Stef!” Bailey cried and put one arm around him. The other she held tightly onto her mother with.

One by one, the Magickers linked hands.

“We'll be back,” Jason told them, “when we can.”

“When it's safe,” Trent added.

If it ever would be.

T
HE moment of crossing from one door in the crystal to another only took seconds. Usually. Even in those seconds, he might feel a chill and a darkness as he traveled a strange
between
that did not quite really exist, nor Jason suspected, did he. That last thought would have raised the hair on his arms, but he didn't have time for it. Or rather, he had way too much time. He didn't bring the group through the way he thought he would. They seemed to hang in the void, the iciness and bleakness creeping in until he feared someone would let go, and he'd lose them.

Being lost inside his crystal was nothing he'd wish on anyone, but you wouldn't be lost permanently. At least, Jason didn't think so. On the other hand, it wasn't something he felt like testing. It had been bad enough when Bailey had fallen into her crystal those many many months ago and not only had she disappeared physically, but in time as well. Her disappearance had baffled every one of the Magickers for days and days, until he'd finally picked up on clues she was leaving them, and managed to find her.