The Inner Circle, Book 3 of the Glass Wall ( A YA Urban Fantasy Romance ) (14 page)

Clearly, he was seeing something of my
thoughts, but I wasn’t about to share anything voluntarily with
him. Not until I figured out what was wrong with him.

“What have you discovered, Sydney?” he asked
in a hushed voice.

“I can’t tell you,” I replied honestly. “Not
until we figure out how you’re connected and why you’re fainting …
and things.” I didn’t want to mention Melody’s needle.

He hesitated. I thought he was going to
protest. But then he just shrugged and replied gamely enough, “All
right. What’s next?”

I stared at him. What
was
next? I
didn’t have a clue.

And then I thought of Reese. I don’t know
why. I suppose it was because Melody had used her as a cover,
living with her as an ancient decrepit aunt for a while.

“As soon as it’s light, you’re going to take
me somewhere,” I said. Melody had been messing with Jareth for
quite some time. Maybe she’d inadvertently left some clues behind.
I didn’t know if it was a good idea, but it felt right to try
something
rather than to just wait around for the
Brotherhood to make their next move.

Jareth lifted an irritated brow. “And we’re
just going to stand out here in this filthy chicken coop until
then?” he asked crossly.

“Glad you’re feeling better.” I scowled in
response.

I supposed we’d have to take our chances
outside the Faraday cage eventually, might as well be now. In any
case, I’d made a monumental discovery that I felt optimistic about,
although I couldn’t share it yet.

“Let’s go,” I said, unlatching the door.

With a mock salute, Jareth stalked after
me.

I trudged across the yard in the darkness.
The bubble followed us, blanketing our movements. It was around
3:00 A.M. Not knowing what else to do, I escorted Jareth into the
family room and sat down on the couch.

Ajax was glued to my side, and I was glad he
was there. A little timidly, I reached down and ran my fingers
along his spine, feeling his soft, silky fur.

To my utter astonishment, he leaned over and
rested his chin on my knee. It was for a brief moment only, but
long enough to make my mouth drop open.

“We’ve several hours still before dawn,”
Jareth grunted through a large yawn. Settling into Al’s easy chair,
he clasped his hands behind his neck and propped his foot up on the
coffee table as Galahad flew to perch on the back of the chair.

“We can plan,” I suggested. “Maybe I should
get my notebook.”

But my words were met only by silence, and
when I glanced over, I saw that Jareth had fallen asleep.

I just stared at him, astonished. How could
he possibly sleep after all that had happened? I was tempted to
wake him up when I thought maybe he wasn’t feeling well and needed
to recover from whatever the Brotherhood had done to him.

I sat on the couch for a while, just watching
the hands revolve around the clock and listening to the ticking
sound it made. Would I ever get another uninterrupted, blissful
night of sleep again?

Since we were no longer in the Faraday cage,
I knew I shouldn’t let myself plan anything, but it was hard. I
found it was difficult to control my thoughts. In an attempt to
distract myself, I flipped on the TV and continually changed the
channel.

It seemed like days before the sun rose, but
what a difference it made when it finally did. As the first rays
streamed through the window, the terror of the night was somehow
dispelled, and I found myself filled with a lot of hope and a
strong sense of purpose.

Moving over to Jareth, I gave his chair a
little shove with my foot.

“Wake up,” I said.

He didn’t budge, but Galahad, perched on one
foot, opened a single eye.

“Sorry, Galahad,” I muttered. And then I
kicked the chair harder and repeated, “Wake up!”

With a loud groan, Jareth sat up. “What is
it?” he grunted crossly.

Behind me, Grace let out a little squeal.

I spun around, afraid she’d seen Jareth’s
bubble of light, but it had disappeared.

“What’re you doing here, Jareth?” she asked,
bringing her phone up to snap his picture.

Jareth sent her a sour look. “Don’t you have
enough pictures by now?” he asked.

“Nope,” she said with a laugh and snapped
another one.

“Jareth needs to take me somewhere,” I said,
heading towards the kitchen. “But let’s grab a quick bite
first.”

Running around in the middle of the night had
made me hungry.

A little bleary-eyed, Jareth stumbled after
me. “What am I, your personal chauffer?” he asked with a petulant
grumble as he entered the kitchen.

“Yes,” I answered. “But I’ll tell you where
we’re going after you get in the car.”

He didn’t seem to mind. Tying his dark hair
into a simple ponytail, he sat down heavily at the kitchen table
and gave an overly loud yawn.

“Cereal?” I asked, jiggling the box of
generic cornflakes in his face.

He didn’t say anything. He just watched as I
poured a bowl for him and then stared at it. Galahad hopped down
from his shoulder and perched on the edge of the bowl. The bird
pecked at a few of the flakes before abruptly fluttering away.

Apparently, neither of them cared for
cornflakes.

I ate mine, watching amused as Grace
continued to take pictures of Jareth.

He sent her a frown of warning, and then a
growl. But she ignored him. Humming a happy song, she snapped
away.

After a while though, Jareth’s brows crooked
up, and he sent her an even darker glare.

I could tell that he’d had enough, but before
I could stop him, he flipped his trion through his fingers and
whispered something unintelligible.

I gasped.

They both looked at me in surprise.

But then Grace’s jaw dropped. Clutching the
phone in her hand, she stared at it in shock. Peering over at her
phone, I could see her techy-pet was eating all of her photos one
by one and leaving little piles of digital poo on the screen.

“Your pet must have a virus,” Jareth said
dryly, looking quite pleased.

“Huh?” Grace asked, whipping her chin up to
look at him.

I frowned at Jareth. He was getting sloppy.
He couldn’t even see her screen from where he was sitting.

He just smirked and picking up a coin, began
his infernal flipping.

“Let’s go, Jareth,” I said, shoving my arms
into the sleeves of my jacket.

He followed me without a word, and Grace just
watched us go, obviously still in shock over her phone.

I waited until he’d started the Bentley
before announcing where we were heading. “We’re going to see
Reese.” I’d looked up her address in the school directory.

“Reese?” he repeated in astonishment, hanging
his arms over the steering wheel. “Why?”

“Just go,” I said, not wanting to explain too
much.

But he figured it out anyway. “Melody isn’t
one to leave behind crumbs,” he scoffed.

I watched him closely. He didn’t show any
sign of turning pale or fainting.

“Why are you staring at me like that?” He
scowled.

I just shrugged. Apparently, the Brotherhood
wasn’t interested in this conversation. “She
might
have left
a clue,” I said. “She
was
ill, almost dying, right? She
might have gotten sloppy. You guys aren’t perfect, you know.”

He didn’t answer. He just sent me a dark
look. But he backed the car out of the driveway and headed towards
Sammamish, the town where Reese lived.

We were silent the entire trip and soon
enough, we were pulling up the tree-lined driveway of Reese’s
house. It was a huge brick house with an entrance tall enough for
an elephant to walk through.

Jareth drove up to the front, and then
turning off the engine, settled back into the seat comfortably.
Folding his arms, he closed his eyes as if preparing for a long
nap.

“What’re you doing?” I asked, punching him on
the shoulder.

“What do you think?” He cocked an irritated
brow my way. “You kept me up all night. I need my sleep.”

“Oh no!” I scowled at him. “You’re coming in
with me.”

He just snorted and stubbornly closed his
eyes.

I glared at him, but when he deliberately
began to snore, I got out of the car and slammed the door shut as
hard as I could. Rubbing my own sleep-deprived eyes, I stomped up
the sidewalk and around a group of manicured shrubs to ring the
monstrous doorbell.

To my relief, Reese herself answered the
door. As usual, she looked as if she’d stepped straight out of a
fashion magazine. Her long dark hair fell over her shoulders in a
perfect wave.

“Sydney?” Her mouth formed a round ‘O’ as her
nostrils flared in disgust. “What are
you
doing here?” Her
words couldn’t have sounded more contemptuous.

“Can I just ask a few quick questions about
your aunt?” I began, getting directly to the point.

I winced. It sounded strange. I hadn’t
planned it this way. I’d figured Jareth would just work his charm,
and she’d blurt out everything that we needed to know. But that
plan didn’t work with Jareth snoring in the car.

She stood there, pretending to think, and
then with a smirk she practically spat, “Are you drunk? I have
better things to do.” With an exaggerated eye roll, she began to
close the door

“A pity,” Jareth said, stepping out from
behind the manicured shrubs. “My tortured soul could use a bit of
friendly company.”

He looked a little pale. It worried me. I was
about ready to take him back to the chicken coop when Reese
gasped.

“Jareth!” She giggled.

I watched, acidly noting the difference in
greetings.

Batting her lashes, she practically bowed.
“Come in, Jareth, please come in.”

She stood to the side and let him pass,
sucking her bottom lip in some gesture that she apparently thought
was cute. Grabbing his arm at the first opportunity, she asked with
a coy smile, “And what can I possibly do for you?”

“We met this longtime friend of your aunt’s
at the coffee shop,” I inserted quickly. “Anyhow, she mentioned
there’s this notebook your aunt left behind which belonged to her,
and I told her I knew you, so …”

Reese frowned at me, clearly irritated that I
still existed.

“Just let Sydney look at her things,” Jareth
suggested in a deep voice, folding his arms and slouching against
the wall in the same way he did for all of his promotional
pictures.

It worked perfectly, just like I’d wanted it
to.

Reese nearly fainted, after giving him the
once over, of course.

“There isn’t much,” she said, flipping her
hair over her shoulder and sending Jareth a sultry look. “But I can
show Sydney the room. Wait here a minute, while I show her where
it’s at.”

Squinting her eyes at me, she ordered for me
to follow. “Hurry up, Sydney,” as if I were seriously slowing her
down.

But then maybe I was.

“This was her room,” Reese announced curtly,
opening the door of an airy and spacious room before turning to
rush back to where she’d assumed Jareth would be waiting for her.
But she nearly crashed right into him at the door.

Clearly disappointed that he’d followed us,
Reese sent me a vicious look. Her nostrils flared a little too
wide, and she suddenly reminded me of a cow.

“Charming,” Jareth muttered in a sarcastic
drawl, also catching the look.

I kicked his shin. “Keep her entertained,” I
hissed under my breath.

Muffling a curse, he rubbed his leg and
hobbled to the nearest chair.

I knew he was exaggerating, but it gave Reese
the perfect excuse to rush to his side and to coo over him. It was
kind of amusing to watch Jareth get so annoyed. I felt like taking
my time just to prolong his torture.

But then, I didn’t like the pale cast to his
skin.

Glancing about the room, I looked for any
sort of clue, but the room was practically empty.

But, there was a picture. I wandered over to
a dresser, on top of which rested a small silver-framed photo of
Melody sitting in her wheelchair.

Catching Jareth’s eye, I pointed to it.

With a shrug, he dismissed it as irrelevant,
but I had a gut feeling that he was wrong.

I picked it up and peered closer. Melody sat
hunched to one side, looking helpless and ancient with
crinkly-paper skin and crooked, arthritic hands. My mind strayed
back to when I’d first seen her.

I’d made the biggest mistake by helping her
out then. I’d helped to rescue evil incarnate.

Jareth engaged Reese in conversation, and I
took advantage of her distraction to slip the photo out of the
frame. There was something written on the back in a shaky, spidery
script.

It was an address in New Mexico.

Slipping the photo into my pocket, I quickly
searched the dresser, but the drawers were empty.

There was nothing else to be found.

I turned back to Reese and found that she was
practically climbing all over Jareth.

He looked as if he were about to scream.

“All done?” he asked me, clenching his
jaw.

“All done,” I said with a nod.

Without a word, Jareth rose to his feet and
stalked out of the room.

Reese ran after him.

She watched us go, outright drooling with
envy as I climbed into the Bentley. I forced Jareth to wave at her,
just in case we needed her help in the future. I could feel her
jealous eyes boring through the back of my head as we zipped away,
but I didn’t find it gratifying in the least. I just wanted to
go.

“What did you find?” Jareth asked as we
pulled out of her driveway.

“An address,” I said, waving the photo in his
face.

He pulled the Bentley over and parked at the
curb. “Simple enough to check out,” he said, grabbing the photo
from my hand.