Evanescent (26 page)

“Who’s this?” Marky appears next to me with
a spatula frozen midair. Her tiny brown eyes are already filling
with grief.

Laken swallows hard. “This is Wesley.” Her
voice shakes. “He’s my boyfriend, Marky. He’s really nice.”

Shit. She’s pulling out all the stops.

I take Marky and spin her back in the
direction of the kitchen.

“Hey, shortstop.” I press a kiss over her
head, walking her the hell away from Wes.

“What does she mean he’s her boyfriend?”
Marky’s lips quiver with a resolute sadness as if all her sisterly
dreams of Laken becoming a part of the family have been pulled from
underneath her.

“Laken likes him, too,” I whisper. No use in
offering her false hope anymore than she’s already been privy to.
“But he’s sort of an ass.”

Marky looks past my shoulder at the two of
them and shoots Wes the stink eye.

“He looks fake,” she whispers. “I can
already tell he’s not as nice as you.”

“Yeah, well, I’m one of a kind.” I give her
shoulder a squeeze as Marky and her fragile heart slink back into
the kitchen.

“Rumor has it you have the results.” Wes
darts a suspicious glance around the room as if I’ve jammed the
place with ninjas ready and willing to take him out once his guard
is down.

“Results are in the office,” I say it low,
sad. Laken’s right. I can’t let my emotions or anybody else’s, ruin
her ability to get into the Celestra tunnels. Lives are at stake.
And once we set them free, an entire river of truth will be
unleashed, including whom Laken really wants to be with. Deep down
inside I’m hoping I’m that person, but realistically I don’t even
know if she considers me a contender.

I lead us back and give a knock to the
office door before the three of us step inside.

“Wesley.” Dad gives a placid smile. He’s got
on his thick cable sweater, his oversized glasses that frame his
face like cartoon outlines. “Nice to see you. Nice to see you, too,
Laken. Please, take a seat.”

I pull out a chair for Laken and Wes, before
leaning against the wall.

“I don’t know the results,” I say, grazing
Laken with a glance. “I wanted to find out with you—the both of
you.” I add that last part for the safekeeping of my balls.

“It’s curious.” Dad looks over the notes as
if they were written in hieroglyphics.

“What’s that?” I peer over his shoulder. I
wouldn’t mind speeding up the process, especially since I left
Marky in cookie distress. Wesley is pretty much screwing things up
all around.

“This girl, Hattie”—Dad glances up at me
before reverting to Laken—“she’s a purebred Celestra.”

The room stills. Laken and I exchange a
quick look.

“So…” Dad relaxes back in his chair. “No
particular monsters here. Her DNA has all of the required human
markings and then some. She’s definitely one of us—a Nephilim
through and through.”

“I guess there’s nothing to be afraid of.”
Laken sinks in her seat.

I know for a fact if Wes weren’t in the
room, this conversation would be a hell of a lot more animated.

“Nothing to be afraid of,” Dad echoes.

“Not true,” Wes counters. His jaw clenches
as he takes us in. “Celestra is always the enemy.” He turns to face
Laken in full. “Did she threaten you? Do you think she was trying
to hurt you?”

“No. I just thought she was creepy.” Laken
touches her hand to her chest. I have a feeling Wes is going to
take this down a path I don’t want him to.

“I’ll dig in deep and find out everything I
can about this Hattie girl,” he says with a sense of bravado
designed to make Laken feel all warm and fuzzy inside.

And there it is. Once Wes dives in and
discovers two dead Tobias sisters with the same face, it’ll make
him wonder what the hell is going on like the rest of us.

“No, please don’t.” She’s quick to stop him.
“Flynn is doing that. In fact, when she came to the library
tonight, she was looking for him.”

“That’s funny,” I say mostly to myself. “He
wasn’t in class today or football practice. He hasn’t missed a
practice ever, not even the day after Casper went missing.”

I pluck out my phone and stare at the
bizarre text he sent last night.

H me

“He sent this while we were at the
restaurant.” I show the phone to the three of them.

“
H
me?” Laken looks perplexed.

“Help me.” Dad nods up at me. “Sounds like
your friend, Flynn, found himself in hot water.”

Shit.

Laken looks up at me and swallows hard
because she knows exactly what this means.

We need to find Flynn, like yesterday.

Wes hardens his glare in my direction. He’s
observed one too many secret glances between Laken and me. His body
language alone clues me in on the fact I might be the next one to
disappear.

Wes smirks. “He probably partied too hard
and ended up in a different state entirely.”

I give a sober nod at Wesley’s almost
plausible explanation.

More like another state of
being
.

“I wouldn’t be too worried.” Wes pats Laken
on the knee. “He probably forgot what day it was. He’s functioning
on half a brain.”

If the Spectators have anything to do with
it—he won’t have a brain at all.

Laken insists we conduct a manhunt in the
woods that line Ephemeral, which I wouldn’t have minded so much if
she also hadn’t insisted on dragging Wesley along with us. The fact
it’s near thirty degrees, and dark as hell didn’t seem to detour
her either. Laken is dead-set on regaining Wesley’s trust. Not that
I blame her. We have everything on the line if she loses it.

The woods snarl around us as the ground
clouds hiss and swirl with our every step.

“Flynn had taken Hattie out here more than a
couple times.” Laken shoots me a look.

I know what she’s thinking—we should keep
all mention of our Spectator expeditions close to the vest.
Wesley’s orders were to kill them, not resurrect them one by
miserable one.

“We should get Hattie.” Wes turns toward
Ephemeral without missing a beat.

“No,” I say. “I doubt she had anything to do
with this.” Not only that, but I’m worried she might spout off
about trying to find the Tobias clan and why. The less Wes knows,
the better.

Laken steps over roots that sprout from the
ground, thick as dinosaur tails. I wish it were just Laken and
me—that it was Wes the Spectators ate for dinner last night and not
Flynn. I shake my head at the thought. I don’t really want Wes
dead. I just want Laken. But she’s in too deep. Her old life clouds
her vision of this new reality, and I may never win her heart, God
knows, Wes will never surrender his post.

We head deeper into the maze of the forest,
and the path leading back to campus dissolves in a tangle of murky
shadows. The cedars and pines interlock sharp as knives until it’s
almost impossible to move any further.

“We’re going to get disoriented.” Wes slips
his arm around Laken’s waist without thinking about it. The bastard
doesn’t even know how lucky he is to have her, to touch her so
easily whenever the hell he feels the need. “Coop”—he nods over to
me—“you thinking what I’m thinking?”

I was thinking it hours ago, but I don’t
call Wes out on being slow on the uptake. He probably thought the
same thing, too.

“Yeah, man, I am.”

“What?” Laken looks horrified. “You think
they took him?” She draws her hands over her mouth. “You think he’s
dead don’t you?” She closes her eyes, and an entire stream of white
fog swirls from her mouth.

“It’s not looking good,” I say.

Laken steps away from the two of us and bows
her head in sorrow.

I don’t give a shit about Wes and his
imaginary line in the sand. Instead, I go over and take up her
hand.

“Everything happens for a reason, Laken,” I
say pulling her in.
Get Wes out of here. I’ll get Hattie and see
what I can find. Flynn is a Count. He has a fighting chance if he’s
dead, remember?

“You’re right,” she whispers, glancing down
at our interlocked fingers.
What if they bit him? What then?
Laken’s silver eyes shimmer in this dull light.

I don’t know
. I shake my head just
enough.
There’s always Ezrina
.

She killed Pearl—twice.

She’ll improve her method
. I’m quick
to point out. I can only hope it’s true.

It had better be true
. Laken turns
back to Wes and gasps.

I twist around to find a large looming
shadow standing directly behind him.

I recognize those long speared horns, that
misshapen head, the body of a man, the face of an ox—Asterion.

Looks like Flynn might not be the only one
in need of a resurrection in the very near future.

Wesley

The forest sizzles and snaps around me. A
shadow lingers over my shoulder, thick and smothering as a
blanket.

Laken seizes. Coop holds out a finger for me
to stand still.

A weighted hand crashes over my shoulder,
dirty with hair covering the back like an animal.

“Shit.” I close my eyes a moment because I
know what’s coming, what’s already here—a Fem, ready and willing to
distribute an ass kicking. “Get Laken out of here.” I say it low
and careful so as not to incite the creature any sooner than
necessary.

Coop keeps his eyes focused on whatever lies
behind me. He picks up a stick from the ground and hands it to
Laken without taking his eyes off the beast.

“Run.” He roars it out as a command, but
Laken doesn’t move.

Coop swipes a knife from his pocket and
holds it low against his thigh.

It’s nice to know that neither of them
listens to logic and reason when times get tough.

My legs kick out from underneath me. My
torso is caught in the air before I ever have a chance to hit the
ground. The world spins. I rise to the uppermost branches of the
evergreens and look down to find a Minotaur just like the one
standing proud in the middle of campus. He looks up at me with his
fiery red eyes, his body gleaming like burnished bronze, his feet
glow orange like molten steel.

“Fuck.” It comes out with far more fear than
I ever anticipated. I’ve never been a fan of Asterion. Truth be
told, he’s scared the shit out of me a time or two, and this just
so happens to be one of them.

Coop backs up and tackles the beast by the
legs, buckling it at the knees from behind, and I fly forward,
catching myself on the skeletal branches of a birch. My face and
arms get scratched to hell in the process.

I hit the ground with a thud, and the wind
knocks out of me by way of my already cracked ribs. If I didn’t
know better, I’d think those damn Olivers paid the Fem to inflict a
little extra damage.

“Shit,” I seethe, trying to get my bearings
as I struggle to my feet. “Laken?” I turn to find her a good
distance away on the other side of Coop and the beast.

Cooper staggers from the creature only to
have it reach out and yank him back like a ragdoll.

“Wes!” Laken screams in a panic.

Asterion snatches Coop by the ankle and
swings him like a baseball bat against the fat trunk of a pine.
Coop holds out both arms to deflect the blow, and something cracks,
loud as a snapping branch.

Shit. I limp my way over.

It slams Coop down over the floor, and his
head bounces like a melon.

Fuck. I watch in horror as Coop lets out a
groan, his face bloodied along one side.

Just one more blow, and things could get
fatal. My heart thumps as my feet nail themselves into the dirt.
This could prove to be a lethal jaunt in the woods for Coop, and I
wouldn’t have to worry anymore about Laken. A wall of fog
enwreathes me as my breathing becomes erratic.

“
Wes
, do something!” Laken howls it
out over the expanse, and her voice echoes for miles.

My legs carry me to the towering menace, and
I pause. Laken etches herself in my mind. The image of the two of
them holding hands a few moments ago reverberates like a
heartbeat.

“You fucking ass.” Laken looks right at me
before diving in low and taking out the creature’s legs.

I run over to help and trip on a root,
landing on my busted rib. The air expels from my lungs in one quick
push. The world warps and bends as I try to get up without passing
out.

The beast lands on the forest floor. All I
see from this vantage point is the bottom of Laken’s boot traveling
in a half-circle as she lands a kick in the creature’s nose. It
bucks and grunts as she comes back down over the top of its head
with her elbow.

Asterion rears its head and lets out a roar
that mimics a freight train screeching to a halt. It tries to rise,
but Laken proceeds with her assault and skewers it through the eye
with the stick in her hand. She plunges the branch so far into its
skull she piths the creature.