A Lonely Magic (10 page)

Reaching Luke came first, though. Gorgeous Thug Guy had already shot him once and he would be a sitting duck staring at a computer screen in the office.

By the time she burst into the house, her lungs were burning and she was gasping for air. She had to pause to rest in the open atrium, hands on her knees.

“Miss?” One of the guys who worked around the house approached, voice worried.

“Just getting in a little workout,” Fen choked out as she straightened. She tried to smile, hoping she didn’t look as flat-ass terrified as she felt. From his wary response, she guessed her smile was more of a grimace, but when she waved him off, he backed away.

She hurried along the interior hallway toward the library, passing the overflowing bookshelves without a second thought, and beyond them, into the office.

Luke looked up from the computer. “Racket is a noise. A loud noise.”

A loud noise, like the one going to happen any minute when Gorgeous Thug Guy and his friends began shooting?

“We’ve got to get out of here.” Fen grabbed Luke’s hand and started tugging him toward the door.

“To go where?” Luke asked, not resisting her pull.

God, that was the question, wasn’t it? “Anywhere. How can we escape from the island?”

“What do you mean? Escape what?” Luke sounded puzzled but obliging as he followed her into the library.

Fen headed straight for the door. The rooms in this interior part of the house—the library, the office, the dining room—had no windows, no exits to the outside. Safer in hurricanes, she supposed, but she didn’t want to wind up trapped. But by the time they reached the library door, she could hear male voices down the hallway, in the atrium.

She paused. Those had to be the new arrivals. What were they doing? Were the men spreading out to search for her and Luke? The voices were rumbles of sound, no words.

Behind her Luke started to say something and she whirled, hushing him with a hiss and a finger over her mouth. He was smiling as if she were playing a game, but when he saw her glare, his face sobered.

“What is it?”

She pulled him with her and pressed up against the bookshelf by the door, trying to listen to the sounds in the atrium. If she moved to close the door, they might hear or see her. She and Luke would be stuck. And somehow she doubted the library held a stash of hidden weapons that would let the two of them take on a cold-blooded killer or three.

Or four.

Eladio.

Good guy or bad?

Her brain was running wild, scenario after scenario playing out in her imagination. Was Eladio a traitor, a disgruntled employee selling out his employer? Or was he an innocent victim, tricked by a clever plot of the even cleverer drug dealers who’d tracked them to this isolated island?

“What’s happening?” Luke whispered.

“The guy who shot you is here.” Fen barely breathed the words.

Luke’s eyes widened and he pushed away from the bookcase, taking two steps toward the door before Fen caught his arm.

“No,” she hissed at him. “He’s got friends. And Eladio acted like he knew them.”

Luke’s lips tightened, a look that reminded Fen of Kaio. She swallowed, a lump in her throat. Stupid to wish Kaio were here. But she couldn’t help remembering the calm confidence in his voice when he told her he’d gone to Zach’s apartment himself.

Luke leaned against the bookcase next to her, but closer to the door. Together, the two of them listened.

The voices neared them. Fen couldn’t understand what they were saying. They grew louder as they approached and the conversation continued, but the words kept slipping out of her grasp. Were they even speaking English? Maybe not.

Luke, though, looked intent, eyes half-lidded. She’d dropped his arm, but his hand slid down and grasped hers. He squeezed and nodded, and Fen let out the breath she didn’t know she’d been holding.

He nodded again, a quick dip of his head as the voices receded.

“Can we run?” Fen whispered.

“Wait. One minute,” Luke said, his voice as soft as hers had been.

Fen felt as if she was holding herself together with Scotch tape and chewing gum.

Wait?

Um, no.

Run, run, run.

It was a miracle she wasn’t already hyperventilating her way to unconsciousness. She’d never fainted during a panic attack, but hey, first time for everything.

A door closed.

Fen started toward the library door, but Luke held her back, shaking his head.

“It’s our chance,” she whispered.

“Not yet.”

“Dude, do you not get it? That guy tried to kill both of us. We’re hiding out on this island so he doesn’t get a second try. Staying here—” Her whispered words were increasingly frantic but the moment Fen heard a door open, she fell silent.

Gently, Luke pushed her back, away from the entrance. “Wait.”

Fen scowled.

He was turning into his brother before her very eyes. Bossy as shit and way too sure of himself.

Luke stepped into the doorway and beckoned to someone in the hallway.

Eladio entered the room, a frown on his face. “What is it? The delegation from…” He paused as he spotted Fen, dipping his head. “Miss.”

Delegation? What the hell? But Fen didn’t have time for questions as Luke said, “Fen recognized one of the new arrivals as the man who assaulted her and shot me.”

Eladio stiffened, his eyes widening, before his expression melted into a glare that would have done a volcano justice. “Which one? I’ll see him called before the council before day’s end.”

“You can’t,” Luke said. “We can’t. Think of the explanations.” He glanced at Fen and stopped speaking.

Eladio followed his gaze. “Ah. Yes, the ramifications would be… unfortunate.”

Unfortunate? Fen didn’t like the sound of that.

“Yes.” It was all Luke said, but Fen felt a shudder run down her back.

She stuffed her hands in her pockets, closing her fingers around the reassuring coolness of her crystal, and hunched her shoulders. She hated feeling this way—small and alone and helpless. She wanted to be in her apartment, under her covers. She clenched her teeth against the urge to scream.
I want to go home.

Two heads swiveled to face her.

“Drop it!” Luke said, voice urgent. “Let go, let go, quickly.”

She stared at him. What was he talking about?

“That’s done it,” Eladio said. “There’ll be no hiding now.”

None too gently, Luke grabbed Fen’s arm and tugged it out of her pocket.

“Hey,” she protested as he forced her fingers open and shook her crystal out into his hand.

“You’ll have to take the boat,” Eladio said.

“And go where? If the Val Kyr have a receiver, they’ll be after us before the sun sets.” Luke stared down at the blue rock as if it were poisonous, his jaw clenched.

“What other choice is there? We’ll delay them as long as we can.” Eladio sounded authoritative but his Adam’s apple bobbed as he swallowed.

Fen glared at both of them. What was going on? What were they talking about?

“I’m taking her home,” Luke answered.

“You can’t." Eladio’s air of formal politeness, the perfect butler persona he wore like a dress uniform, was gone. His voice was frantic as he added, “Kaio would never—”

“He told us to keep her safe,” Luke said, interrupting him.

“He didn’t—he couldn’t have—he wasn’t…” Eladio shot a desperate glance in Fen’s direction, and then hissed, “You know the penalties.”

“I’m taking her home,” Luke repeated stubbornly. “She belongs there.”

“She does not.”

“What are you talking about?” Fen asked in a furious whisper. “Take me where?”

“We’ll have to swim for it,” Luke said. “I’ll be back with help.”

Swim? No, that wasn’t an option.

But Fen didn’t get a chance to protest as Luke grabbed her hand. “Keep them busy.”

Eladio sighed, his head tilting as if he were listening for sounds from the dining room. “You’re just like your father.” The words sounded like a complaint, but he added, “Be brave.”

“You, too.” Luke nodded. “I will return with aid as soon as may be. Distract them. Delay them. Don’t fight.”

Eladio’s answering smile was grim.

Fen let Luke draw her out of the library, along the hallway, through the atrium and outside. But as they dashed across the patio and down to the sandy beach, she mustered the words to question him breathlessly. “What the hell is going on?”

“If they have a crystal receiver, they know you’re here,” he answered her. “That means you need to be elsewhere before they decide upon a course of action.”

She gasped as he tugged her toward the water. “What sort of course of action?”

“Slaughter us all and take you prisoner is undoubtedly under consideration.” Luke grinned but the smile didn’t reach his eyes.

Fen thought she might choke on her own saliva. “What?”

“Other variations upon that theme are likely.” He wasn’t looking at her as he headed into the ocean.

Water curling around her feet, Fen wailed, “Wait. Stop.”

Luke paused. “We don’t have time. I will answer your questions as I may, but we must away before the Val Kyr decide what to do. Our kind is not prone to haste, but Eladio and I are young and move with the impulsiveness of our age. In this case, I do believe our youth serves you well.”

Fen blinked at him. “Val Kyr? Our kind?”

She’d teased him over the past two days to admit he was an extra-terrestrial. He’d declined with laughing politeness but an underlying firmness that made her feel as if he could be in trouble if he confirmed her beliefs, so she’d let it go. She didn’t need him to tell her what she already knew. “You are an alien.”

He shook his head. “No, I am not. But we have no time for this discussion. I ask for your trust in this, Fen.”

The sun beat down on Fen’s shoulders and head. She could feel the heat of it, the warmth toasting her skin. The waves splashed up around her feet and the edges of her sundress. “What trust? What are you talking about?”

“We must swim,” Luke told her, his expression earnest. “Your safety—our safety—lies in the sea. We must swim for our lives.”

Damn it, damn it, damn it
, Fen thought. And then she admitted the truth. “I don’t know how to swim!”

Down, Down, Down

Luke’s mouth dropped open. “You don’t…”

“How the hell would I learn to swim? Inland state. Moved all the time. Not exactly the summer camp and swim lessons upbringing.” Fen waved her arms as she exploded, fear and fury and frustration all seeking an outlet.

“No matter,” Luke grabbed her hands and pulled them to him at waist height. He shook them. “No matter,” he repeated. “Do you trust me?”

“I—” Fen stared at his green-brown eyes in his boyish face.

Alien, alien, alien,
her brain reminded her.

“Yes,” her voice blurted out.

“Then we swim.”

“I can’t!”

He ignored her, turning and pulling her deeper into the water. They splashed out into the waves, until Fen’s skirt was wet and sodden against her thighs and she could taste the salty spray on her lips.

“Here,” Luke said when the water reached his waist. He crouched, tugging the hand he still held over one of his shoulders and reaching for Fen’s other hand.

“You can’t be serious.”

He grinned at her over his shoulder. “All you have to do is hold on.” It sounded as if he were trying to coax her but his eyes held a wild light and his voice a daredevil edge.

Fen wanted to whimper.

“You’re insane,” she choked out, but with a glance back at the beach, she let herself fall forward onto Luke’s back, sliding her hands over his warm skin. She clasped them around his neck, linking her fingers as she turned her face to the side.

This was crazy. Where were they going? Did the aliens have a base on a nearby island?

But then the time for thinking was past and all she could do was hold on and squeeze her eyes closed and try to remember to breathe and keep her fingers locked tight together and ignore the water hitting her face.

Holy hell, Luke was fast. He moved like a dolphin, entire body pulsing through the waves.

After a few minutes, Fen relaxed. Luke stayed high in the water, high enough that she never went fully under. Although the water sometimes covered her mouth, it never lasted long enough to be scary, and she managed to hold on without difficulty as he swam farther and farther away from Caye Laje.

In the middle of the ocean, no land in sight, Luke slowed and stopped, feet dropping until he was treading water, Fen’s arms tight around him.

“Are you well?” he asked her.

“Oh, hunky-dory,” she answered. Scared, soaking wet, sun beating down on her head, glare from the reflection off the water hurting her eyes, and hey, completely helpless. Who could ask for anything more?

“Good,” Luke responded. The guy obviously didn’t get sarcasm. “Here’s where it gets harder.”

Fen would have dropped her head against his shoulder if it wouldn’t have immersed her face in saltwater. “Harder?” Her voice sounded much steadier than she felt.

“How long can you hold your breath?”

Fen didn’t hit him. She wanted to, but she didn’t. “Breath-holding. Not part of the curriculum at the school of hard knocks, sorry.”