The Inner Circle (Return of the Ancients Book 3) (18 page)

Thinking about the Brotherhood of the Snake, I helped Al clip bits of wire.

“How do you deal with snakes, Al?” I asked as we worked on his hat.

Al hardly blinked. “The number one snake safety rule is to avoid them, but if you can’t, remember sudden moves make them attack.”

Avoid them. How I wished I could avoid the Brotherhood of the Snake.

“Why don’t you get us some ice cream and have a look through my Wilderness Safety notebook, kiddo,” Al suggested. “It’s the red notebook in the drawer over there.”

After dishing out two bowls of Neapolitan ice cream, I found the notebook, returned to my spot at the table, and began flipping through it.

“Don't assume just because birds and other animals eat it, that it’s safe,” I read aloud. “In a forest fire, the smoke will show you which way the wind is blowing, and that‘s the way the fire is moving. Fire travels faster uphill, so don’t make for high ground. Take refuge in a river if you can.”

That was interesting, though I wasn’t sure how useful it was to me.

I took a bite of ice cream and continued, “Always remember that earthquakes can trigger tsunamis. If the water recedes from the beach, a tsunami is on the way, and if you’re close enough to see one, you’re too close to escape it. The only way to save yourself from a moving wall of water is to get to higher ground.” Written in big red block letters, there was an additional note. “Don’t return to the danger zone after the first wave, tsunamis are not a one-shot deal, they come in packs.”

Packs of tsunamis. I knew that was an original Al statement. I looked over at him, contentedly attaching the chicken coop wire to his baseball cap.

“Where did you learn all of this stuff?” I asked.

“Just a lifetime of curiosity, kiddo,” he answered with a wide smile. “Keep on reading. I could use a refresher.”

I scanned the pages, reading that handheld flares can get hot when they burn down, so you should never hold one in your hand while in an inflatable raft, as you could accidentally drop it and burn a hole in your boat. I also learned that when you boarded a helicopter, you were supposed to wait until the pilot dropped a grounding cable in order to avoid getting an electrical shock.

A couple of things seemed particularly useful, like how to give yourself the Heimlich maneuver by pushing up against the back of chair, and the tourniquet points to stop arterial bleeding—namely, the joints, the crook of the elbow, the upper side of the knee, and the front of the ankle.

There was a tiny note on the margin of the page that said if body heat is lost slowly, then rewarm slowly, and if it was lost rapidly, rewarm rapidly.

I came across a page titled ‘Snakes’.

“Here it is,” I said, hoping to find something useful to thwart the Brotherhood. “Don’t put your hands and feet in places you can’t see since most snakebites are on the arms, or the unprotected legs. And don’t suck snakebites or apply a tourniquet to the wound, just immobilize it with a splint, apply pressure, and hold still.”

That was it.

I frowned.

“There aren’t any poisonous snakes in Seattle, kiddo,” Al said, catching my expression. “What were you looking for?”

“I don’t know,” I admitted, closing his notebook and carefully putting it back in the drawer. “I guess some way to keep them away from me.”

He put his wire clippers down and scratched his chin thoughtfully, his expression sobering.

I watched him, thinking that what I liked about Al the most was the fact that he really listened. No matter how crazy or silly something sounded, he always respected me enough to really listen to what I was saying, completely and without judgment.

“Well, if you can’t avoid them, then grab them by their weak spots," he said. "Those snake wrestlers on TV sure know how to do it.”

I imagined grabbing Blondie by the back of the neck. “No,” I said, shaking my head. “I don’t think these snakes have any weak spots.”

“Nonsense,” Al said with a chuckle as he turned back to his hat. “Everything has a weak spot, snakes included.”

With a last twist of the wire, he patted his hat and slapped it on his bald head. Looking down at me, he winked. “This hat stays on as promised, Sydney.”

I smiled at him and held out my pinky.

“Pinky-promise.” He beamed as we locked pinky fingers.

We had just finished another Faraday cap when Ellison’s Volkswagen pulled up into the driveway and he, Grace, and Betty piled out.

“What’s this, honey?” Betty asked as she came in and set a bag of groceries down onto the kitchen counter.

“Oh, just an experiment Sydney and I came up with,” he said, pride evident in his voice. “Actually, more her idea. This kid has quite the brain on her.”

I smiled. His approval made me feel warm down to my toes.

As they all began to chatter, I escaped to the family room with my bags in order to wrap my Christmas presents.

Al and Betty didn’t have much of a tree, but they did have one of those tiny ones with a flapping mouth that blinked its eyes and sang once you hooked it up to an MP3 player.

I’d just finished arranging my presents around it when everyone came into the family room.

Grace deflated onto the couch and heaved a loud sigh. “It’s Christmas tomorrow,” she said with a grin. “We can watch the Christmas Day Parade.”

“And play Monopoly,” Ellison added.

They traded fist bumps as 
Al settled into his chair and fiddling with the remote, switched the TV news on.

The news anchors were talking about some famous reporter who had made a mistake, live, on national TV.

Al fixed his gaze on the television and frowned deeply.

But as his frown intensified, I turned my attention to the screen.

“Let’s take another look,” the news anchor said and sat back.

Footage began to play of a TV reporter standing in front of the huge Christmas tree in New York Times Square. She was talking about the enormous Christmas crowds when suddenly all of her words came out garbled and a look of confusion crossed her face.

The news anchor came back on to confer with some neurologist who explained that the reporter had suffered some kind of sudden migraine on camera.

“Look at that,” Al said, shaking his head. “I think I’ll give Jack a call.”

Grace and Ellison grinned, but I didn’t share their skeptical humor. I, too, wanted to know what Jack thought.

Oblivious
to their amused looks, or at least pretending to be, Al disappeared into the kitchen.

I followed.

I hung around, petting Tigger and washing dishes as Al chatted with Jack.

After a few minutes, he hung up the phone.

“Jack says there’s dozens of these cases,” he informed me, crossing his arms emphatically to make the point.

“This has happened before?” I asked, surprised.

He leaned forward and answered in a hushed tone, “They’ve been testing what they have lately. Jack says these TV reporters speaking gibberish are all
dry runs
.”

I believed him, except for one thing. “I don’t think it’s the government doing it, Al,” I said.

I was sure it was the Brotherhood. Maybe it had something to do with the portal they were trying to open.

“It’s time to do some research,” Al said, his keen eyes narrowing. “Come on, kiddo.”

I followed him to Betty’s computer and pulling up a white plastic chair next to his, sat down as he clicked on a folder titled ‘Top Secret’. In it were a handful of links.

But we didn’t get far. Almost immediately, we were interrupted by the doorbell, followed by Betty’s shriek.

I jumped out of my chair in alarm, knocking it back onto the floor.

But then I heard Betty laughing, and a tall man dressed in fatigues stepped through the door.

Giving me a reassuring pat on the head, Al righted the toppled chair and then joined Betty to hug the newcomer.

“Sydney, come meet Louis,” Al called from the entryway as Grace ran squealing from the family room to give the man a hug.

Louis, it turned out, was Al and Betty’s son, home from the army, just in time for Christmas. He was a big, burly guy with freckles and bright red hair.

I didn’t think he looked anything like Al or Betty, but he was just as big-hearted and loving. He gave me a hug and called me ”little sister”, and then shouldering his duffle bag, headed to the family room to “make camp”, as he called it.

I hung around the door, listening to everyone talk, and then Betty decided to clear the corner of the living room for Christmas. We all pitched in, moving EBay boxes filled with things like pet vacuum cleaners and devices to exercise double chins away until we’d revealed a fireplace that I never knew we had.

It was fun, and they were all laughing pretty hard. I watched them all, a little jealous. It had been a long time since I’d really laughed.

Al brought several logs in from the garage and had a fire crackling in no time. It bathed the room in a cozy orange glow as 
Grace ran into the room with a large package of marshmallows and a few sticks. Gathering around in a circle, we speared the marshmallows on the sticks and roasted them.

I’d just had my third marshmallow when the doorbell rang again and another man arrived. Another son named Alec, fresh out of boot camp.

He didn’t look like Al or Betty, either.

I watched him wrap Betty in a great big bear hug, and then suddenly feeling like an intruder, I escaped to my room.

I really wasn’t too excited to be there. After all, I still hadn’t recovered from my visit from the evil tulpa. But the first thing I noticed was Galahad perched on the edge of the curtain rod.

He had a piece of paper in his beak, and he spat it at me as I entered.

Catching the fluttering scrap, I read the words, “Your babysitter.”

I smiled a little at Jareth’s thoughtfulness even as my heart tugged at the thought that Ajax would no longer be there because Rafael had gone.

Frowning at myself for thinking of Rafael yet again, I pulled the baseball cap securely down on my head and glanced up into Galahad’s creepy unblinking eyes.

He looked super grumpy, and I wondered if all Fae animals were ornery and anti-human, at least at first. Ajax had warmed up to me towards the end.

The end.

I scowled and refused to think of it.

Turning to Galahad, I extended the olive branch of peace. “I can tell you don’t like being here,” I said. “But thank you, anyway.” I bowed a little.

Galahad just looked at me and ruffled his feathers.

I didn’t know what it meant, but I pretended it was a bird-version of “thank you, I like you, too.”

Kicking my shoes under the bed, I played with Jerry a little before plopping down on my mattress. But I was restless, and I didn’t want to fall asleep. I didn’t want the tulpa to come back.

I still had Al’s night-vision goggles on my dresser. Taking them up, I peered out the window. I didn’t see anything. I wondered if that meant the Fae had truly gone.

It was beyond depressing to think that Rafael was no longer here and that I’d never see him again. For a brief moment, I thought I saw him, an impressive sight dressed in black body armor. But then he was gone, and I was left wondering if I had seen only what I’d wanted to see.

I put Al’s night-vision goggles away and sat back on the bed.

I knew better than to even try to sleep when feeling depressed. Apparently, that had drawn the mutant tulpa straight to me.

But then, I hadn’t been wearing Al’s Faraday cap.

Pulling the cap even more down over my ears, I laid down and attempted to work on my Pikachu tulpa.

It was very hard, and gradually, my eyes grew heavy.

Scooting down under the covers, I drew a blanket over my head. The Brotherhood might be sending the mutant tulpa my way, and I might not be able to stop it. But I sure didn’t want to see it.

Morning couldn’t come fast enough for me.

Finally, pure exhaustion overcame me, and I closed my burning eyes.

My heart was heavy.

Already, I missed Rafael. I knew that I’d never recover from losing him. There was no doubt that I’d carry a great big hole in my heart for the rest of my days.

And then I felt it. A feather-light kiss on my cheek.

Tiredly, I opened my eyes.

For one glorious moment, I saw Rafael bending over me, tall and handsome in his black body armor.

I felt a heady rush of feeling.

Raising two fingers to his cheek in farewell, he disappeared in a mist.

I knew then that it had to be a dream. He couldn’t shift.

Depressed, I turned to face the wall. Right now, I didn’t care about anything else but how much my heart was hurting.

It was a long night. I only slept in fits and starts, and when the next morning came, I straggled into the kitchen, feeling exhausted.

Another newcomer had arrived during the night. David.

“I didn’t know you had so many brothers,” I mumbled to Grace. It was strange. They all looked about the same age, and I couldn’t see any family resemblance. I wondered if they were kids from previous marriages.

But then Grace broke into my thoughts.

“Yep,” she said over a mouthful of cereal. “I’ve got three brothers. Louis just got out of the army, and Alec and David just joined.”

Alec was short with dark brown hair, and David was blond and lanky.

I figured they must be adopted, but then Betty must have seen the curiosity on my face because she gave me my answer.

“I could never physically have children, you see,” she explained with a warm smile. Her eyes misted as she surveyed the three men towering around her. “All of my kids arrived in unique ways, but they’re my kids all the same.”

My brows lifted in surprise, and then I looked at Grace. I’d always thought she was a biological kid.

“I’m adopted,” she said, chomping down her last bite of cereal. “One of those foster-to-adopt deals.” She gave me a wide grin.

“I wanted a girl,” Betty explained, looking a little embarrassed. “Not that I don’t love you boys. All three of you.”

Their laughter made the kitchen floor vibrate.

And then Betty started flipping pancakes and everyone pitched in to help.