“I didn’t. I should have been able to catch you.”
“No, Tuesday night.” The memory shot through her. “You grabbed my hand and jerked me away from those guys.”
And then she had run.
“Yeah, I was jealous of the way all three were dancing with you.” There was still anger in his voice. “I didn’t know they were your cousins.” He paused. “Well, they’re not your cousins, but you know what I mean.”
Earlier on Tuesday a mysterious force had been directing her to run. The same voice that had guided her since that first night when she had escaped the murderers in her parents’ home. That’s why she had taken her backpack with her to Planet Bang. She had never intended to go back to Mary’s house. But before she ran, she had wanted to see what it would feel like to be an ordinary kid, hanging out with guys her age.
“Derek.” She called his name softly this time.
His lips were close to hers now. “Yes,” he breathed.
Why not tell him the truth? She had gone to Planet Bang hoping to see him and had foolishly flirted with Michael Saratoga only because Derek had been dancing with another girl when she got there.
“Who was the girl with the long hair you were dancing with on Tuesday night?” she asked.
“Who? You mean, Sara?” He laughed. “That’s my younger sister.”
She lifted her arms and wrapped them around his neck. She had liked him from the moment she had met him Monday at school. No wonder he thought she had been acting weird on Wednesday when she couldn’t even remember his name.
But other memories came to her now. Ones that filled her with sadness. She saw her mother, father, and sister. Tears burned into her eyes. Having her memories suddenly restored made it feel as if they had died all over again.
“You’re crying.” Derek pressed her against him and rubbed her back soothingly.
She remembered the way she had struggled through the woodlot that first night and finally found shelter in the trashed boxes behind a liquor store. She had fallen into a deep sleep and was awakened the next morning by the woman who owned the store.
That began her first foster placement. More than anything she had wanted a home. She had lived in so many different houses and towns. West Covina. Ontario. Long Beach. Wilmington. She had kept a key from each one. That’s why there were so many on her key chain. She felt suddenly sorry for herself, sorry that she had lived like a stray.
“Tianna.” Derek spoke softly. “Why do those guys want you so badly?”
The answer came to her with sudden force. They were trying to stop her from bringing back the lost goddess before the dark of the moon. Was that tonight?
“Can you see the moon out tonight?” she asked suddenly.
Derek chuckled. “I haven’t really noticed.”
“Try,” she told him. “It’s important.” Justin and Mason didn’t want her to make the three become four again. Now she remembered what she was supposed to do, but it still felt like a puzzle.
“How ’bout the window?” she asked.
“You want me to see if there’s a moon?” His shoes scraped on the cellar floor as he started to move.
“No. I’ll climb up there and get us out.”
“I don’t know.” She could feel him shake his head. “The window looks like it hasn’t been opened in a zillion years.”
“It’ll open for me.” She stood and had started to walk to the wall under the window when an unexpected sense of doom struck her. What if she didn’t survive the night? She turned abruptly and knocked into Derek. She wanted to know what a kiss felt like before she died.
“Derek, kiss me.” Her heart was beating so hard, she was sure he could hear it.
“I’ve wanted to kiss you since the day I first saw you,” he admitted. His hands caressed her shoulders, then glided down her back and pulled her closer to him.
“Then do it,” she urged and rushed her tongue over her lips so they wouldn’t be dry.
He leaned over her and cradled her against him. She was aware of the warmth of his body. Then his lips touched hers. The feeling startled her and she took in a sharp breath.
“It’s your first kiss.” His lips spoke against her ear.
“No—” she began. “Yes.”
He brushed her hair back with his fingers as if she were fragile and precious, then he took her hands off his chest and placed them around his neck. He wrapped his own hands around her waist and kissed her again for a long time.
“Thank you.” She sighed when he finally pulled away. “Now I have to rescue you.”
“Because I kiss so good,” he teased.
“That and because I got you into this mess in the first place.”
They walked over to the wall beneath the window, holding hands.
“I’ll climb up, then open the window,” she ordered. “As soon as I’m outside, you follow.”
She could feel his skepticism before he even spoke. “I don’t know. That window looks like it’s frozen shut. You’ll never get it open.”
“Trust me,” she answered, and didn’t bother to hide her annoyance. “Just because I’m a girl…”
“I didn’t say because you’re a girl,” he corrected her. “I said the window looks frozen shut. Some things are impossible.”
“Nothing’s impossible,” she said. “Just watch me.”
She touched the wall. It was covered with a slimy growth. Years of leaking water and damp earth had created a garden of fungus and mold over it. The smell was so strong, she could almost taste it on her tongue.
She focused her mind on moving the first brick out just a few inches so her toe had something to perch on, then she reached as high as she could and willed the brick beneath her palm away from the wall as well. She stepped on it, and felt the wall slump. Mud oozed from a crack, pushing out the mortar, and covered her foot.
“What’s that sound?” Derek asked.
“The foundation is unstable,” she explained. “From the water. I think there’s a river of mud behind the bricks.”
“We’d better hurry, then.”
This time she used her telekinetic powers to move the brick more cautiously. A grinding sound filled the cellar as it scraped out a few inches.
Derek stood next to her, his hands on the wall, as if he were trying to hold back the flood of slimy soil. “Hurry,” he repeated.
“So you believe I can do it now?” she asked, trying to make her voice come out teasingly, but her words sounded strained and filled with fear.
“I know you can,” he encouraged.
She hadn’t counted on the bricks being so old and the mortar decaying. She climbed up two more steps, then glanced at the window. She willed it open.
The frame protested with a shudder, then screeched against the side jambs as rusted hinges slowly pulled the window up.
“How’d you do that?” Derek asked. “You’re not even close enough to reach it.”
“I was,” she argued. “You must have looked away.”
“But even if you stretched, you couldn’t touch it now.”
“I was closer and I slipped,” she said, exasperated. “Do we have to discuss it now? Just climb.”
“But—”
She cut him off. “Justin and Mason could come back after us any minute.”
“All right.”
She took a deep breath and perched her toe on another brick, then pulled herself up and grabbed onto the windowsill. She struggled and wiggled into thick gluey spiderwebs. The cobwebs stuck to her face, and the more she wiped at them, the more they seemed to cling to her cheeks.
“What now?” Derek asked from below.
She didn’t answer but rolled outside under a hibiscus bush. Low-hanging branches scratched at her back. She wiped her hands on the grass, then turned and looked back into the basement. She couldn’t see a thing. “Can you feel the protruding bricks?”
Derek patted his hands along the wall, making a wet slick sound. “It feels like grabbing a hand
ful of slime,” he muttered.
“Thanks for sharing that,” she whispered back. “I already cleared part of it away, and you won’t even have to deal with the spiderwebs.” She stretched over the windowsill to guide Derek. She could feel the bricks shift beneath her.
“This might not work,” Derek said. “I’m heavier than you are by maybe thirty pounds. That would make a difference. It’s like the whole thing is ready to collapse. Maybe you should just run for help.”
“And leave you? No way. Try again.”
This time as he started up, she used her power to force the bricks to stay.
He grasped a brick and pulled himself up. The foundation seemed to hold. “I can’t believe it,” he said with bafflement in his voice.
She felt her strength wavering, as if she was losing control. She wondered if there was a limit to her power. She focused until her forehead ached.
“Tianna,” Derek called from below her. “I think we have a problem.”
“What now?” she rasped, not hiding the exasperation in her voice. She could see the dim outline of his head. He only had a little way to go. She leaned in farther.
The marshy soil was sweeping through the bricks with a squishing sound. The odor was nauseating.
She concentrated, not sure if she had enough strength left to suppress the cave-in.
Silence followed.
“Start again,” she said as a spider scurried over her face on feathery feet. When she turned to brush it away, she saw Mason and Justin. They were leaning against the front corner of the house about fifteen feet away, near the porch light, smoking cigarettes and talking.
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
“JUSTIN AND MASON are right out here,” Tianna whispered down to Derek. “Be quiet.”
“That’s kind of hard to do with these bricks,” he answered with frustration. His hand clutched the windowsill, and she rolled back to give him room to climb outside.
As he pulled himself through, her mental hold gave way. The sludgy mess of bricks and mud collapsed, emitting putrid smells of wet, brackish earth and decay.
She looked at Derek with complete surprise. “It hardly made any noise.”
“There must have been so much mud that it insulated the sound of the bricks falling.” Derek wiped his hands in the grass to get rid of the mud, then peered under the bobbing branches of the hibiscus to where Mason and Justin stood. “They didn’t hear anything, at least. Maybe because of the traffic sounds.”
Tianna listened. They were near a freeway or highway. The constant roar from cars and trucks could mask almost any sound.
“Now let’s just hope the house doesn’t collapse.” New worry stirred inside her, but the frame of the house looked solid.
“Yeah,” Derek agreed, and his hand went protectively to her back. “And hope they don’t see us.”
“Too late.” Tianna cursed under her breath.
Mason and Justin threw away their cigarettes and started to walk toward them. The red embers made twin arches as they flew across the night sky.
“They’re coming.” She had grabbed Derek’s arm, ready to run, when a resounding boom like distant thunder made her stop. “What’s that?”
A ’57 Chevy with dual exhaust pipes rumbled into the drive, its fenders ablaze with red and yellow metallic flames. It skidded sideways to a stop, the motor died, and Pete stepped out, dressed like a hipster in khakis, a white T-shirt, and an Armani jacket. Other than his clothes, he looked the same as he had when he had asked her to dance at Planet Bang. Then he turned and his face caught the porch light. She shuddered. His eyes had an unnatural glow.
Mason and Justin continued walking toward the car. They spoke in loud voices now, as if they were boasting. Pete whooped. The howl of his laughter made her skin crawl.
“They’re pretty freaky guys,” Derek said, as if he had felt the same shiver.
Then all three turned and strolled toward the front of the house. Under the harsh glare of the porch light Justin and Mason no longer looked young but cadaverous and wan. She wondered how old they really were.
“What are they?” Derek asked, as if he had also seen the hideous change in their faces.
As soon as the door closed, she took Derek’s hand. “Now’s our chance.”
They scrambled out from under the hibiscus bush, then ran across the lawn toward a long line of eucalyptus trees.
“Go toward the traffic sounds.” Derek indicated with his head.
“Where are we?” Tianna asked.
Derek took a deep breath. “It’s got to be somewhere near the beach. You can smell the salt air.”
They stepped over a bed of dried eucalyptus leaves, then slid down an embankment until they were on a busy street nestled against the beach. Derek pointed to a road sign. “Pacific Coast Highway,” he read.
“But where?” she asked. “PCH runs up and down the entire California coast.”
He shrugged. “We’ll worry about that later. Let’s go.”
They ran along the shoulder of the road toward the bright headlights of the oncoming traffic. Their clothes flapped and their hair blew about their faces as air currents from the speeding cars breezed around them.
Soon they were at a strip mall. The smells of garlic and lemon came from a small Italian restaurant that had eight-by-ten glossies of celebrities on the wall.
“We can slow down now,” Derek assured her, and let go of her hand. He wrapped his arm around her, and they strolled down the sidewalk. “We’re on the strand and they’re not likely to bother us here.”
She wished she could feel so sure. She tried to steady her breathing as they walked past a long line of stores selling souvenirs. Sunburned kids, surfers, bikers, and tourists pushed through the stores, eating churros and hot dogs on sticks.
They had started to pass a pricey hotel with twenty-four-hour armed security guards when Derek clutched her hand and pulled her down a delivery driveway that curved behind the building.
“Why are we going here?” she asked, and started to go back. “It’s a dead end.”
“I got an idea.” He smiled broadly.
Men were wheeling crates of vegetables from the bed of a truck onto the loading dock. Derek climbed onto the dock, then walked over to one of the men. She wondered if he was begging for something to eat.
In a few minutes he came back to her. “They’re going to give us a ride back to L.A.”
“Thanks.” She rested her head against his chest. She liked him a lot, and that was precisely why she couldn’t see him again. She had to find a way to tell him they couldn’t hang out. It was too dangerous. She sighed. It was going to be hard. She loved the way he made her feel, but she couldn’t think only about herself. Besides, he was probably searching for an excuse to break up with her right now. No guy wants a girl who has monstrous humanlike creatures chasing her down.
“Come on,” Derek said, and they hurried onto the loading dock, then into the bed of the truck. They sat next to the cab on lettuce leaves, bits of broccoli, and carrot tops that had fallen from the crates.
She looked into Derek’s deep blue eyes and wished she didn’t have to tell him good-bye.
The driver closed the tailgate and gave them a thumbs-up and a big smile. In moments they were rolling up the driveway and onto the coast highway toward Los Angeles. Tears blurred her vision, making the traffic lights and taillights smear together into one reddish glow.
She took a deep breath, turned to Derek, and started to speak, but before she could say anything, he broke the silence. “I really like hanging out with you, Tianna.”
“What?” She wiped her eyes. “After tonight I thought you’d never want to see me again.”
“Are you kidding?” He seemed as surprised as she felt. “I’ve never had such an exciting night.”
“Are you making fun of me?”
He shook his head. “From the first moment I met you, I knew you were the kind of girl who went running off the high dive into the deep end of the
pool before you even knew how to swim.”
She laughed.
He pulled her closer to him. “I like that rush of adrenaline I felt tonight.”
The truck turned with a swerve in the road and she slid closer to him. She didn’t move away.
“My adventures before have always been from reading books. I mean, look at me, Tianna.”
She did. What did he have to complain about? His life seemed so perfect. Everyone at school liked him. He had tons of friends, and he got good grades.
“What about you?” she asked finally.
“I’m the only guy in the high school whose mother refused to sign a permission slip so I could play football. She said it was too dangerous. You can’t believe the things I’m not allowed to do. Do you know that when I go snowboarding with Michael, I have to lie to my mother and tell her I’m going to visit his grandmother in Pomona?”
Tianna felt a sudden pang of jealousy. She wished she had a mother who cared about keeping her safe. “It’s just that she loves you. That’s the way she expresses it.”
“Sure.” He nodded. “But I have an adventurer’s spirit,” he went on. “More than anything I want to live a life like the one you showed me tonight.”
Suddenly she felt annoyed. “It seems like fun to you because you’ve only had to deal with Mason and Justin for one night and now you can go home to your safe bed and remember all of this like a dream. But if you were always on the run from them, I can guarantee it wouldn’t seem so great—” She stopped. How could she ever make him understand? “It’s really unsafe for you to hang around with me. They’re not going to stop until they destroy me, and they don’t care who they take with me.”
He put his arms around her. “How long have they been after you?”
“A long time,” she answered, but she didn’t elaborate. She didn’t want his pity.
He held her tightly. “We’ve got to do something to stop them, then. Let’s go to the police.”
“I’ve tried that,” she answered. “They don’t believe me.”
“Then we’ll capture them ourselves and take them to the cops. They’ll have to believe us if they see them.”