"Here, try this." A very tall young man was there, his light brown hair combed neatly and a smile in his blue eyes. He offered to trade a better single for the one I had. I gave him my best smile and accepted the trade. It worked, so I thanked him again and walked down the hall drinking orange soda as I went. I was sitting up in bed, finishing off my soda and reading when Gavin woke for the evening. I don't think I'd ever seen him wake before. His eyes popped right open.
"I wish I could wake up like that," I said.
"Lissa, what are you doing awake?" he was growling at me and eyeing his laptop case immediately after. That worried me for an instant, until Gavin pulled me down next to him and proceeded to make me forget everything except him for a while.
While we cleaned up afterward, Gavin informed me that we were checking out a location later. "Cara, I want you to go to mist and if you see anything or notice anything strange or out of the ordinary, I expect you to send René, Tony and me mindspeech immediately. And if we are in danger, you know to take us up as mist and get us away." Gavin held my chin in his fist and leaned down to kiss me in the shower.
"You don't have to tell me twice," I huffed.
"Where are we going?" I asked, as Gavin led the way out of the hotel later, René and Tony right behind us.
"Lissy, there are caves around here and we've had people checking them out," Tony was the one to answer. "We got the idea that some of Xenides' spawn or allies might be using the caves to hide out if they decided to go after your cousins." My two remaining relatives lived in the area and that's why I thought we'd come to begin with. Kansas City had a warren of caves—in fact, they'd used some of them to house businesses and such. It made sense that vampires might use them as well. I turned in my seat to look at Tony, who sat right behind me in the rented SUV. Gavin had gotten it because he wanted something with four-wheel drive. Now I knew why.
"Bill was going to meet us here, but something came up," Tony went on. "He had to take his vamps and wolves out of the country on some secret mission." Tony sounded grumpy over that—more than likely because he hadn't been included in the information handout.
"You think things might be in an uproar since Rahim got caught?" I asked.
"Lissy, I think that's exactly what happened. We caught one of theirs, so now they want to retaliate. Rahim was a hero to some of those people."
"Yeah, that's what I thought, too," I turned around and leaned back in my seat.
"Cara, you cannot take responsibility for the unrest in those countries," Gavin said. I wasn't sure what I could take responsibility for, but I didn't mention that to Gavin.
Tony pulled some sort of GPS device out of a case when we parked near a wooded area a few minutes later, flipped it on and started walking. Gavin, René and I followed, after I turned to mist. We walked for perhaps a mile and a half before Tony started pointing—we'd apparently come to some sort of prearranged spot. I wondered then where the information had come from and what it included. I was so busy trying to hover over Tony's shoulder now, attempting to decipher what was showing on the little screen he was studying that I failed to notice my surroundings for a few moments. When I eventually gave up on the little numbers on Tony's tracking device, I did look around and gave a mental gasp. It was the clearing from my dream. We were right in the middle of it.
Tony, there's a gate here, I sent. That puzzled him—he didn't know what a gate was. He'd walked ahead of me, leaving me behind to consider the situation.
Lissy, what are you talking about? I don't see any gate. Tony was looking for a physical gate and there wasn't one. The light at the center of the clearing shimmered—I could see it as mist but the others couldn't.
Gavin, I think we need to get out of here, I warned as the light began to glow brighter.
"Cara, I don't see, hear or smell anything," Gavin said aloud. Crap. They didn't see it for sure.
"What is wrong?" René asked and then he froze. René was old, as was Gavin. They both recognized the sound, brief as it was, although they hadn't seen what I had. Gavin was already mist and I was rushing toward Tony and René at blinding speed but they'd wandered too far ahead of Gavin—Tony following the directions of his little device instead of paying attention to any of his surroundings. René knew before any of us; he flung himself forward, shoving his youngest vampire child to the ground as the gate opened and the Dark Elemaiya opened fire with bows and wooden shafts.
I lifted René and Tony into my mist and following my instincts, misted right through the gate, picking up a dozen Dark Elemaiya as I did so. Remembering my dream from the night before, I focused on where I wished to go—which was the only other gate I knew. The one on Merrill's property. The one Griffin had closed to all except those of his kind and a few others. I was hoping—no, praying—that I was one of the few others.
It all happened in a blink or two. The second gate was before me and I opened it with a mental flick of power, hoping right then that it would allow me passage. It did. I went right through, Gavin, René and Tony with me. Somehow, the Dark Elemaiya I carried were filtered out of my mist and died as I flew through the gate on Merrill's property; frying on a grid of power erected by my natural father, who knew how long ago. They shrieked and screamed as they died, too, but I didn't have time to worry about that. I'd seen the arrow aimed right at Tony and I had to make sure he was all right.
After setting my burdens down as gently as I could on the damp grass and leaves that littered the area surrounding the gate, I found the damage that had been done. Tony was fine, as was Gavin. Somehow, though, my mist had only delayed the inevitable for René.
A black shaft protruded from his chest and his eyes were wide and filled with pain. "No!" I heard my own harsh cry and I was on my knees next to René in a flash. I'd lost too many people lately. René couldn't leave me, too. Tony loved him. Looked to him as a father. And René was an exceptional parent—kind and loving.
"René, don't leave me," I begged. I was weeping by that time and clutching René's hand in mine. Tony was kneeling beside me and begging as well. Gavin was crouching on René's other side, looking gray.
"Little rose," René whispered, squeezing my hand. "The bloom is on your cheeks, my pretty one," he told me. "I thought you would never come to me." His hand turned to ash inside mine and I sobbed as rain began to fall around us.