Ethereal (27 page)

“I’m back!” I pant in disbelief.

“Looks like she needs help.” Brielle starts to pull in behind her.

“No! You have to drive. Trust me on this!” I scream, navigating the car back out onto the street. “She could have a gun or be an ax murderer. It’s eleven thirty at night. We don’t need to be helping anybody.” I scramble for my phone to call Logan.

“Relax. She probably just needs to borrow my cell or something. It’s not L.A., sheesh.” Brielle tries to pull over again.

“You can’t do this!” I shout. “She’s going to kidnap you. I saw the whole thing. You were right Drake, something very bad was about to happen.” My chest heaves in and out in a dramatic fashion. I’m sure I’m making no sense to them, but I just got released from the psych ward, and I haven’t spent my insanity allowance yet.

“OK, relax. I know you can’t wait to see Logan. I’ll get you there. Besides, look.” She points into the rearview mirror. “There’s another car already helping. See? It’s not L.A.” She picks up speed and continues down the road.

Not L.A. that’s for sure.

                                                        
***

Logan, smart boy he is, greets me with a luxuriously long mouthwatering kiss. My toes dig into the cool sand below as the heavy smoke filled scent of the bonfire swirls around us.

He pulls back and relaxes his hands around my neck. His eyes glitter as they focus in on mine with great ferocity.

“You are not going to believe what just happened.” Truthfully I don’t even want to talk about it. The words sort of flew out of my mouth without permission.

“Skyla, I know.” His fingers sink into my shoulders. “What you’re experiencing is called a Treble. It means this reality is temporary, and things will be changed back to the way they were before you left.”

“
No!
” My body begins in on a series of involuntary quivers. “Drake and Brielle are there, and I don’t know where they are.” A rise of panic starts ripping through me as my teeth start to chatter.
  

“Tell me something about where you are. I can’t find it.”

“I’m underground. It’s…we drove along a bumpy road, and there was a forest.” I close my eyes. I’ve just described all of Paragon. “Don’t you have some underground detection kit or something? It’s a facility, it has a steel table like the one from the morgue.”

“Gage told me.”

“Do something!” I’m shaking uncontrollably. “Call the police.” My arms vacillate before me, transparent as velum. “Don’t let me go Logan. I don’t want to die.”

Logan’s eyes ignite with frustration.
 

Then he does this wonderful thing. He kisses me—a hungry kiss that quells my shivering body. He pushes his tongue into the back of my throat deeper and deeper, increasing his grasp on me until I think he’s going to thrust right through me and it becomes painful. Before I can push him away, I disappear.

Chapter Fifty-Three

Back

It takes a few hard blinks for the blinding white walls to come into focus. I let out a moan of defeat when I realize where I am.

“Come on.” Someone grabs my hand from behind and tugs.

“Logan!” I throw myself on him despite the fact he’s already moving, and we start dashing down the hall. “We can’t just leave. Drake and Brielle are here, too.”

“I’m sensing.” He pats his hands up and down a series of doors.

“Over here.” Gage hisses from around the corner.

“Gage!” I yell, as Logan and I move towards him.

A tall metal door painted white, pulsates from the inside.

“Bree? Drake?” I shout through the crack. “We’ll get you out.”

“Back up.” Logan holds his hand out. His fingers twist the knob with such sheer force he creates an impression of his hand in the metal. The door slides open then bounces wide as Brielle and Drake burst through.

“I know the way.” Drake leads us down the twisted corridor and points to a shaft in the ceiling. “That’s it.” He pants, staring at the square ten feet above us.

Gage starts wobbling on his feet. He starts in on a slow gravity-defeating rise to the top of the ceiling.

“What the?” Drake’s voice is less than a whisper. His face loses all color and he drops to his feet in a disheveled lump on the floor.

Logan lifts him up and hands him to Gage, then Bree.

“Thank you.” A voice echoes around us.

“It’s her.” I can feel her nearby.

“Get them out of here.” Logan directs Gage.

A swarm of bodies dressed in black crowd in on Logan and I. One of the men pinches the back of Logan’s neck and he falls, limp as a rag doll.

“Logan!” I’m tossed over the shoulders of an exceptionally tall man and dragged right back to the chop shop.

                                                        
***

I’m bound and strapped with metal chains thick as my thumb, lying on the glorified stainless bathtub of death.

“This really sucks.” I say rather calm as the redheaded woman works in a frenzy, separating long glass tubes into rows and rows. “So what’s your name?” I ask trembling.

“Whatever you’d like to call me.” Her voice echoes without reason. She doesn’t bother turning around from her busy work.

“I’ll call you,
Hateful
. You can’t have any good in you to do something like this.”

“It’s Ezrina. And what is it you think I’m doing?” She sorts through a box before plucking out more enormous vials.

“Getting ready to take my blood.”

“One point for you.” She says it dry as though she were wasting her time speaking.

“I can’t stand the sight of blood.” My chest heaves in huge waves of panic.

“Then I’ll gouge out your eyes first.” She clicks a few vials together clearing out her workspace.

“
No
. No thanks.” I struggle to pull my hands free from the chains.

“Relax, will you?” She sits on a stool, and glides over like I’m about to have a physical. “You Celestras are always so edgy.”

I stare wide-eyed behind her at Gage, holding a metal like spear in his hand.

The sharp end of the blade ejects itself out of her chest. She looks down at it in disbelief as a pool of crimson blooms across her white shirt like a flower.

She falls over and begins to twitch and writhe. A series of gagging noises sputter from her as I watch in horror from above. She points at me, her eyes narrow in with intense hatred, then blood trickles out of her nose and she stops moving.

My feet loosen. Gage is twisting metal, plucking my legs free. He makes his way over to my arms and starts doing the same.

“You killed her!” I never thought I’d be so elated over witnessing something so gruesome. “You were fantastic.”

“Yeah well, she doesn’t stay dead, so let’s hurry.”

“What do you mean she doesn’t stay dead?” I ask, rubbing at my wrist.

“We have two hours.” He helps me up. “I’ll go get Logan.” He disappears.

A short stubby man dressed in black, slides sideways through the door. He races over and I back into a tray of medieval looking tools of the trade.

I grab the first thing available—a long twisted piece of metal with a spear like tip. My thumb glides over a bump near the bottom, and the thing starts spinning.

“OK, hand it over and no one gets hurt.” He laughs without meaning to.

With everything in me, I thrust it hard into the soft fleshy area just below his stomach. He tumbles backwards thrashing and screaming. I grab the metal tray and run behind him, knocking him over the head with it.

“Nice work.” Logan marvels, as he and Gage come upon me.

We three stand over his body as the blood spills out in a small pool around his midsection.

“How long does he stay dead?” I ask.

“Forever.” Gage comments.

I look from Gage to Logan.

“I thought you said it was a two hour thing?”

“Not this one.” Gage pats his jeans. “Let’s go.”

We race down the hall at top speed. Logan helps me out through the overhead panel and back onto the forest floor.

We follow Gage through the thicket in the woods, and find Drake and Brielle huddled down below the windows in the backseat of her Jeep.

“I let them in on your little secret.” Gage climbs into the backseat with them.

Logan helps me get in on the passengers side then hops around and starts the car.

It’s going to be a long ride home.

Chapter Fifty-Four

Safe

Logan helps me up to the butterfly room. Without him I probably would have never been able to crest that second roofline.

I take off my jacket and toss it down the open panel onto my closet floor.

“So how does it feel being an angel?” He asks sitting across from me clasping my hands.

“Exhausting. It won’t always be like this will it?”

“It might be if you don’t put on that pendant.”

Color rises to my cheeks, as I stare down at our interlocked hands.

I’m sorry. I don’t have it anymore. I accidentally gave it back to Chloe
.

A soft sigh depresses from his chest. He looks to the side before blinking back to me.

It’s not your fault, Skyla. I should have been upfront with you right from the beginning instead of leaking you information on a need to know basis.

“So you forgive me?” It comes out meek.

“There’s nothing to forgive. But now, I want to tell you everything.” He gives a gentle tug. “Chloe was a Celestra too.”

“
Really
?” I like her more just because of that. I sort of have this sisterly vibe going with her.

“Really.” He pauses. “I had to break it off with her, but she didn’t want to.”

“What do you mean
had
to?”

“Two Celestra make a very big bulls eye.”

“Oh.” I don’t think I like where this is going.

“Two Celestra dating, are too stupid to live.” He continues.

“Excuse me?”

 
“You and I, we can’t see each other anymore.” He compresses a breath. “Not publically.” He leans his finger up against his lips.

“So we’ll date in private.” I don’t really like it, but I’ll take what I can get.

“It’s not that simple. We need to take it a step further.”

I don’t want to know what that could possibly mean.

“You need to have a boyfriend. A real person who everyone thinks—
believes
you’re with.”

“Who in their right mind is going to agree to that?”

“Gage.” He closes his eyes as he says his name.

“Gage.” I repeat. “His prediction—it’s probably a fake marriage.”

“Let’s hope.” He twists his lips.

“So when does this start?”

“It takes effect now. And trust me, Gage made it clear that he would make this very believable.”

A flashback of Lexy Bakova’s party flickers through my mind—Gage and I locked in a kiss.

“I know.” He says mournfully.

“I’m so sorry.”

“Don’t be. I was stupid to let Michelle hang all over me.”

“What about you? Are you going to get a girlfriend?”

“Nope. I’m going to be the scary loner.” His chest rumbles with a dry laugh.