Obsidian (Mystic Stones Series #1) (14 page)

Wherever you go from here, please know that I will always love you, and I will never hold anything against you. You can always come to me and trust me. I promise not to change you unless you want it. I see my mistake now. Forcing you into changing pushed you away and I won’t ever try that again. I only want you to be happy and I wish I could do more to make you happy. If you ever need anything please don’t hesitate to ask.

I hope that someday we can be together, I have a very long life ahead of me and I will be heartbroken if you are not in it.

Until we meet again, my Sweet Ava, I love you and farewell.

Tom

I wiped away a tear as I folded the letter back up. I noticed Tom had left one of his shirts. I wasn’t sure if he did it on purpose or not but the soft white fabric brought me a little comfort.

Echoes of my friends’ voices reached me. They came from the galley. I gathered myself, taking hold of my emotions, then got dressed and went to say good morning to everyone.

“Aloha, Kakahiaka!” Alani sang as I walked into the galley.

“Mornin’ everyone,” I said as I forced a smile. Hiu and Nalani looked up from the breakfast table and bid me good morning in their Hawaiian language.

“Are you okay?” Alani asked, “You look . . . tired.”

“Yeah, I’ll be okay, I didn’t get a lot of sleep last night,” I said with a yawn. Then I sat down at the table. It wasn’t really a lie, I just didn’t say why I didn’t get enough sleep last night.

“Well, I guess seeing Tom again couldn’t be easy,” Alani said.

My heart jumped. “What?” I hoped Alani hadn’t seen Tom sneaking out.

“Last night, at the warehouse, you saw Tom right?”

“Yeah, it was weird,” I said with relief.

“I’ll say. That buggah was like their kahuna or something. He the only one who talk. Definitely not da kine you want to hang with, Ava. Good thing you got away from him,” Hiu said before he shoved a spoonful of cereal in his mouth.

I forced a smile and gave a little hooray gesture with my arms. Alani plopped down a plate in front of me. It had bacon, eggs and toast on it. She poured me some chocolate milk as I stared out the window at the ocean. Nalani left the galley to finish carving the shell into another ring.

“I’m glad we got all the supplies we needed. I thought it would be more difficult to get food and stuff. Did you guys get all the food from my house?” I asked.

“Yeah, we had to gather all the food from everyone’s house. The supermarkets were all pretty much empty. People were going lolo. We need to figure out how to get the ships going again, I don’t feel right leaving all those people on the islands with such limited food,” Alani said.

“I hope we can do that. I think the vampires want everyone off the islands. They want to be isolated. Anyone left when the vampires reveal themselves will likely become a meal. If people find out about the vampires and how to kill them, all Hawaiians will be in major danger. I don’t think the vampires will think twice about killing anyone who stands in their way,” I replied.

“You’re right, we can’t let word get out. A war between humans and vampires on the islands would end with a lot of human blood spilled,” Alani said.

Hiu, who had moved on from his bowl of cereal to sharpen his obsidian dagger, spoke up, “I think it would end in a lot of vampire deaths, not human.”

Alani and I both gave him a disapproving smirk.

“You aren’t thinking about starting a war are you?” Alani asked.

“If it’s gotta be done, it’s gotta be done. Hey, Ava, you still throw knives?”

“Not for a long time, but I’m sure that I can still stick one or two. I might be rusty, but I could pick it up fast. Why?” Another skill passed down from my mother. I had left it behind after she died.

“Well, I thought about making some obsidian throwing spikes once we get to the mainland. That way you can protect yourself from a distance.”

“Are we even going to be able to find obsidian in California?” I asked.

“I think we can find some in northern California. If not, I’ll figure out how to track it down. I’ll start looking in L.A. We’re gonna need it. I’m sure I pissed them off when I killed that Jovan guy,” Hiu replied.

“Yeah, which reminds me, we need to steer clear of any Psytech buildings. When I was with Tom he told me something about vampires having humans as guards.”

“So?” Hiu said with a shrug.

“So, this shell jewelry only protects us from vampires. If word gets to other vampires with human guards they will send them to kill us. We need to lay low. The first thing we do when we get to L.A. is find Moana and set up a safe house,” I explained.

Alani and Hiu displayed reluctant faces. They dreaded showing up on her doorstep, especially with their grandmother. Moana, their mother, went to L.A. to become a movie star. Moana may be selfish, but she would also protect her own to the death. She was our only contact in L.A. so we needed her. Alani and Hiu loved their mother, but sometimes being around her magnified the drama of any situation. We weren’t sure how she would react to vampires trying to kill her children, but she would likely make a big scene.

We would tell her the truth, of course. If we made her house a safe house she would need to be aware of the lurking danger. Another issue was the small detail that Moana and Nalani didn’t quite coincide. In fact, they would have been enemies if their mutual love for Alani and Hiu wasn’t common ground. Nalani thought Moana shouldn’t put her career before her children, and Moana resented Nalani for allowing her son, Alani and Hiu’s father to abandon them. Of course, Nalani had no knowledge of what Kaholo was planning to do, but nevertheless, Moana still blamed Nalani. Alani had once explained to Ava that her father’s name was ironic to her. Apparently, Kaholo means runner in Hawaiian.

The next few days went by slowly. Tom and the night we spent together clouded my thoughts. My heart ached. The more I thought about him, the more I hurt. Eventually, Alani had to try to get my mind off of things, so she tried distractions like card games and board games and even talking me to death. At times, I let my mind focus on the activities and conversations that Alani planned for us, but I couldn’t forget about him completely. Everything reminded me of him, even though we had only spent a short time together.

Nalani made French toast for breakfast one morning, and that was all it took to get me thinking about Tom. Even the chocolate bar that Alani shared with me took my memory back to the day on the beach.

Finally, on the fourth day we reached the mainland and docked at Marina del Rey. When we arrived, it was about 9:30 at night. We couldn’t call Moana because she only had a cell, so we called a cab to take us to her house. Moana lived in Santa Monica, which was only about 5 miles away. The cab took a long time to get to us since the city’s cab numbers had been cut in half by the virus and there was more demand for them now that most cars didn’t work. Soon after the cab arrived we were dropped off at Moana’s house.

Alani knocked on the door and after a short wait, Moana answered. “Alani! Hiu! Oh! And Ava! Hello, Nalani, what are you guys doing here?” Moana asked excitedly. She proceeded to give us all hugs except for Nalani, but she didn’t seem to mind.

Alani answered for us all, “Makuahine, we’re here because we ran into some trouble back on the islands. We took Hiu’s boat here. If you let us come in we’ll explain everything.”

“Of course!” she answered, “Come in, you must have had a long trip.”

The inside of Moana’s house was clean and upscale. Designer furniture, a modern kitchen, an open floor plan that reminded me of Tom’s house all told us that Moana was doing well. Moana led us into the living area where there were plenty of luxurious seating.

Moana was decked out in designer clothing. A silky blouse flowed behind her as she walked and a tight pencil skirt hugged her carefully crafted figure. Moana took pride in her body. She was always on a diet and worked out every day. Her long hair was neatly curled. It was almost as long as mine and went a few inches below her shoulders. After everyone found a seat, Alani motioned to me to explain my part of it.

“Well, Moana, we came here for a few reasons. As you know, the satellite virus has made it difficult to get any supplies on the islands. But the more pressing reason is because the people responsible for the virus were my clients at Herrick-Peyton, the Psytech Company. Psytech bought the Herrick-Peyton building and . . .”

“The people who run Psytech are actually vampires,” Alani finished for me. “They tried to make Ava turn into a vampire, and so we’re kinda on the run from them.”

Moana glanced at Nalani, then back at Alani and I. “Well, I’m glad you are all safe, I trust Nalani has told you the stories. I suppose I better find my ring.”

Alani looked at Hiu. We were all shocked that Moana was being so calm about the matter. Hiu shrugged and announced, “I killed one of them.”

Apparently, he thought he should slip that in there while she was being calm. Moana stared at him for a second, an emotion flickered, and then she calmed herself and said, “That was brave of you Hiu, you’ve become quite the kane. Thank you for protecting your ohana and getting everyone here safely.”

Moana went up the stairs to her bedroom. Everyone exchanged glances. Nalani was sitting quietly on a chair. Soon Moana came back down with a ring on her finger.

“Makuahine, are you okay?” Alani asked.

“Yes, keiki, just a little shocked. I think the best thing for us to do would be to settle in for the night and we can talk more in the morning. Nalani, you can take the guest room by my room. Girls you can stay in the other guest room. Hiu, I’m afraid you may have to sleep on the couch,” Moana said apologetically.

“Minors, I don’t mind,” Hiu said with a smile.

Alani and I went up to the second guest room and settled in. There was only one bed but it was king sized so we would have enough room to sleep comfortably. We took turns in the bathroom and then settled in. It was getting late so we weren’t saying much. When we crawled into bed Alani asked, “I can’t believe this is all happening, what are we going to do?”

“We’ll figure it out. We need to lay low for now. We need a safe house, but I’m not sure this house is going to work. It’s not hard to find. I bet they could track us here if they tried.”

“You’re probably right, and we’ll bring that up tomorrow morning, maybe my mom knows somewhere else we can go,” Alani added.

“Yeah, we’ll get it all figured out,” I said. I was still thinking about Tom. I wouldn’t get much sleep if I kept it up.

“Are you okay?” Alani asked, “You seem a little depressed.”

“I’m fine. I’m just stressed out.”

“So, you’re not thinking about you know who?”

“Yeah, I am, but that’s going to take time. I’ll get over it, eventually. I mean, it’s probably just infatuation, I mean being in love with a vampire is crazy.”

I said the words, but I didn’t mean them. Not from my heart. I knew it was love and I probably wouldn’t get over it anytime soon. I didn’t want Alani to worry and this meant I’d have to start acting more like myself. I didn’t want anyone to worry about me when there was so much more going on that we needed to keep on top of.

“You’re right, I’m just worried. You are my best friend. I don’t like to see you heart broken.”

“That’s not why I’ve been so distant, it’s the stress. I mean our lives have changed so much in the last week. I can’t believe that life is ever going to be the same.”

“Yeah, it is crazy to think about. Maybe someday things will go back to normal. You never know,” Alani shrugged.

“I don’t think it will be the same, now that those creatures are out in the open. I don’t think I will ever be the same,” I explained.

Alani nodded in agreement and gave me a hug.

After that we said goodnight. Alani fell asleep fairly quickly, but I couldn’t sleep. Again. I laid there with thoughts running through my head. I kept looking at the clock until the last numbers I remembered were 3:23.

Alani woke me up the next morning around eight. She was moving about the room after her shower and so I woke gently.

“Sorry, I didn’t mean to wake you,” she said.

“That’s okay. I need to get up any way.”

I got out of bed and went to take my shower. I took my time. My thoughts kept me in a daze. When the water started getting cold I snapped out of it. I got dressed and went downstairs to see everyone gathered around a table full of waffles.

Moana was the first to see me. “Hello, Ava! Good morning!” she said.

Everyone turned to greet me and I replied with a, “Good morning.” I sat at the empty seat next to Alani. Moana gave me a plate of waffles and some syrup.

“Well,” Moana began, “I think we need to talk about exactly what’s going on and what we should do about it.”

“Yes, well, I feel like I’m responsible for all of this,” I said. “I’m the one that dragged you all into this. I’m the one that ran away from a powerful vampire and showed up on Alani’s doorstep.”

“It’s not your fault, Ava,” Moana said. “Alani filled me in on that whole situation and you did the right thing. I’m glad that you went to Alani and that all of us are together. I would rather us all know what they’re planning than find out when the rest of the world does. We can be better prepared this way and maybe even stop them.”