Blood Ties (18 page)

‘RAGE,’ I said.

‘Yes. When they firebombed the clinic everything changed. Elijah went into hiding. We knew RAGE knew about Apollo. We had to keep you a secret. We were scared if RAGE knew you existed they would . . . they wouldn’t let you live.’

‘But now they do know about me . . .’ I remembered what Elijah had said in the kitchen.

Artemis the hunter
.

Artemis the hunted
.

‘Yes. Thanks to that stupid boy who started sticking his nose—’

‘He’s my friend, Dad.’ I glanced back at the closed kitchen door. ‘He was just trying to find out the truth.’

‘I know.’ Dad sounded more subdued than I’d ever heard him. ‘I’m sorry, Ro, you have every right to be angry.’

Another long pause. Then Dad spoke again.

‘You know there were several reasons why we didn’t tell you how you were born. At first because we couldn’t risk you telling someone else. But also because we didn’t want you to feel you were growing up under Rebecca’s shadow, always being compared to her.’

I wanted to laugh and cry at the same time. Could he really not see how he and Mum had made comparisons every day of my life?

‘I know everything must seem terrifying right now, Ro,’ Dad went on. ‘But please don’t worry. We’ll keep you safe. Elijah’s making all the arrangements for our relocation. We’re in a safe house too. We thought it would be better this way. RAGE will be looking for a family, not a couple. And soon they won’t be able to find us at all. We’ll have new names. A new home. A new school for you . . .’

A new school. I sat there, the possibilities of my new life trickling through my mind – energising, awakening me. I could reinvent myself. I could become the Rachel I wanted to be. It was a second chance. A chance of a new life.

Dad and I talked a bit longer. Then he put Mum on. She was all brittle and edgy, calling me sweetie but sounding angry underneath. At first that upset me, then it occurred to me that it wasn’t actually me she was angry with – more that, if we relocated, she would have to give up her whole life, all the tennis club dinner-dances and the little lunches with her friends.

None of that was my fault.

After I hung up I sat in the armchair for a while. Then Mel called me in for the meal she’d cooked. It was some kind of vegetarian curry. Not too spicy, but full of delicious flavours. I ate hungrily. So did Elijah.

The others hardly touched theirs.

Theo still sat, hunched, at the end of the table. He looked miserable and completely lost in his own thoughts. I tried to catch his eye a few times, but he barely looked up from his plate.

Mel was trying hard to be cheerful, laughing at Elijah’s stories and gazing up at him with this fixed smile on her face. But, to me, it was clearly put on. Lewis was even more obviously miserable. He listened and laughed too. But he prodded his food with a fork, eating very little. And his eyes were full of resentment.

‘So Mel,
querida
,’ Elijah said. ‘I must leave after this meal. Will you come with me? Back home?’

Mel bit her lip. Lewis stiffened in his chair.

It struck me that if I could see they were behaving oddly, then maybe so could Elijah. It was pretty gross thinking that he and Mel were together. But still. A girlfriend was a girlfriend. I couldn’t imagine Elijah would be very happy if he realised how much Lewis was into her.

‘I think I should stay with Rachel,’ Mel said awkwardly. ‘It would be better for her with a woman around.’

For a second Elijah’s eyes grew cold and hard. Then they softened again. He glanced at me, his eyebrows raised.

I nodded, blushing. ‘I’d like Mel to stay,’ I said.

Elijah looked from me, back to Mel. ‘Fine,’ he said neutrally. He stood up. ‘Now I must speak to the men.’

He strode out of the room. Seconds later we heard the front door slam shut. The atmosphere round the table suddenly relaxed.

‘He’s leaving.’ Lewis let out a long sigh and smiled tenderly at Mel. She blushed and smiled back.

Could they make it any more obvious?

Embarrassed, I looked at Theo. He was still staring at his plate, apparently oblivious to everything around him.

Elijah came back after a few minutes. ‘RAGE are heading north,’ he said. ‘They know about our airstrip.’ He looked at Lewis. ‘It’s deeply unfortunate your orders to save Theo prevented you from killing Simpson.’

Simpson. The man from RAGE Lewis could have shot. But hadn’t.

‘You know your next assignment?’ Elijah said.

‘Yes, sir.’ Lewis stood up.

But Elijah turned to Mel. ‘Come with me,’ he commanded.

She bent her head and followed him out of the room. Lewis slumped back down in his chair. A minute later the floor above us creaked. I made a quick assessment of which room that was. Mel’s bedroom. I suddenly realised what Mel and Elijah were probably doing. Lewis kicked at the chair opposite him, where Elijah had been sitting a few minutes before.

I walked over to Theo and put my hand on his arm. ‘You okay?’

‘I guess.’ He shot me this beautiful, sad smile.

My stomach flipped over. I wanted to talk to him about everything. Later, I wished I had. But at the time, with Lewis brooding away at the table beside us, it seemed impossible.

Elijah and Mel came back down after twenty minutes or so. Elijah’s eyes were cold as he commanded us to go into the living room. I stood between Theo and Lewis, staring at Mel. She seemed to have shrunk into herself, and was standing close to Elijah with her head bowed.

One of the security guards appeared at the front door.

‘We’re ready, sir.’

Elijah nodded towards two large bags on the ground beside him. I stared at them uneasily. What was in them? As far as I’d noticed, Elijah hadn’t brought anything into the house with him.

‘Mel?’ Lewis stared at the bags. His voice was uncertain.

They were
her
bags. Mel didn’t look up.

Lewis took a step towards her.

‘Stop,’ Elijah barked.

The atmosphere in the room tightened. Lewis stepped back.

Elijah flicked his little finger and the security guard strode over from the door and picked up the bags, then turned and went outside.

Gripping Mel’s hand, Elijah walked towards us.

‘Say goodbye to everyone,’ he said.

Mel looked up. I gasped. There was a dark red bruise under her right eye. Lewis let out his breath in a hiss.

I stared at Elijah. Had he hit her? Had he realised about her and Lewis? Fear spiralled up into my throat. I took a step backwards. Into Theo. We stood, our arms touching, watching Elijah.

It happened too quickly for me to take in. Elijah raised his hand. Something glinted in his fist. He pointed whatever it was at Lewis. Electric sparks. The same ratchety, thudding noise that I’d heard when Lewis had knocked out that man at my school. It took seconds. Lewis swayed slightly. Toppled forwards across the arm of one of the chairs.

I stared, unable to breath.

‘
No
.’ Mel. Half a gasp. Half a groan.

Elijah ignored her. He pulled a real gun from inside his jacket. Pointed it at Lewis’s unconscious body. Then he glanced at the guard who had reappeared in the doorway.

‘Take them outside. All of them.’

The guard grabbed my arm and marched me to the door. He shoved me through. The wind sliced across my face. The guard vanished. Seconds later, Theo stumbled out beside me. Then Mel, her eyes wide with horror.

My mouth fell open in disbelief. Elijah wouldn’t. He couldn’t be going to . . .

A shot echoed out from the cottage.

For a second everything froze. Then I turned towards Theo, just as he turned to me. Our arms reached out. Clutching at each other, holding each other.
No. No. No.
I buried my face in his chest. His face was down too, pressed against my hair.

I could hear Mel whimpering.

I held Theo tighter, my eyes squeezed shut. He was clinging to me like he was drowning.

Footsteps. The front door opening. Elijah’s voice – a low growl. The beep of the car unlocking. Mel falling silent. More footsteps.
No.
Someone wrenching Theo away from me.
No. No. No.

Inside my head I was screaming. But I knew I was making no sound. Theo was yelling though, gripping my arms, his fingers being prised off one by one. I opened my eyes and watched him kicking out at two security guards – one on either side of him. They were dragging him to the car.

Another guard spun me round and shoved me backwards into the house. The front door slammed shut in my face.

I stared at the closed door. Heard the car engine starting up. The scrunch of tyres on gravel.

Silence.

They were gone. They had all gone. It didn’t make sense.

Elijah had gone and left me here alone with . . .

I turned round, my heart bumping furiously in my chest, and stared at Lewis’s body slumped over the armchair.

I yelled until I was hoarse. My head felt like it was exploding. Like I was going mad.

Elijah had shot Lewis. Why? It made no sense. And now I’d been bundled away from Rachel, my arms twisted behind my back by the guards – across the gravel, into the warm seven-seater Toyota. Mel was already in there, sitting behind me, her bruised face in her hands. Elijah had done that too. Why?

And what was he doing with me?

I understood none of it. All I wanted was to get back to Rachel. She was the one fixed point in the chaos. The one person I was sure I could trust.

One of the guards sat beside me, holding my arms. I kicked out at the seat in front. At Elijah.

‘Why did you shoot him?’ I yelled. ‘Where’s Rachel? Where are you taking me?’

‘Quiet,’ Elijah ordered.

‘No.’ I swore at him, kicking the seat again. Fury blasted, red hot, into my head. ‘What are you going to do with me? Kill
me
too?’

‘
Mierda
.’ Elijah twisted round, his face contorted with rage. ‘Stop, Theodore. Stop. I have a phone here, for you to call your mother. Now, stop.’

‘No.’ I pummelled the seat with my heels, swearing in long, loud strings of words – the worst words I could think of. The guard was twisting my arm up high above my back, trying to stop me. But I was off my face with rage – so furious I could barely feel the pain.

Elijah barked out some orders in Spanish. A few seconds later one of the other guards appeared over my shoulder, a syringe in his hand.

‘No,’ I shouted, struggling even harder. ‘No.’

But they were too strong. The guard holding my arm wedged me against the side window, while the one with the syringe tore at my top. With a sharp prick the needle pierced my upper arm. I felt something cold seeping into me. And then I felt sick and everything went black and I was sinking down, down, down . . .

I woke up disoriented, icy air whipping round my face. I was slung between two guards, being hauled across tarmac with lights on either side, like a runway.

I lifted my head a little.
Man, that hurt
. I felt sick. Groggily I lifted my eyes and looked around. It
was
a runway. Round lights ran for hundreds of metres down either length of it. And there was a small plane at the far end. A white Lear Jet, stood in front of a brightly-lit building. Like a warehouse or . . . of course . . . an aircraft hangar.

My stomach heaved. I groaned.

‘Kid’s gonna barf,’ said one of the guards holding me. He had an American accent.

Both guards slid out from under my arm. I stumbled, trying to find my feet, but my legs were too shaky. I dropped to my knees and puked over the tarmac.

I sat back on my heels, shivering, and wiped my mouth on my sleeve.

‘What a waste of Mel’s delicious food.’ Elijah’s voice above my head was cold.

I looked round. He was standing beside me, holding Mel by the hand, staring down contemptuously. Then he turned to the guards. ‘Get him on the plane.’

He strode forwards, tugging Mel after him. The guards stepped around my vomit and hauled me up by the armpits. They started dragging me roughly again, but apart from my groggy head, I felt better for having been sick. Stronger. My feet fumbled against the ground. Then I took a proper footstep. And another.

By the time we reached the plane I was starting to think more clearly. The guards shoved me up the steps. Inside there were five, maybe six, rows of seats. More like little sofas than ordinary aeroplane seats. Two guards were already strapped into their seats at the back. A third was walking through to what looked like the cockpit.

Elijah was standing in the aisle.

‘Sit with Mel,’ he ordered. I made my way towards her. She was near the front of the plane, hunched over, looking out of the window.

I sat down next to her. Elijah eased himself into the seat opposite. He held out the large phone I’d noticed before.

‘This is your last chance to call your mother,’ he said. ‘I would like you to speak to her. I promised her you would. It may be some time before you see her again.’

‘Why?’ I snapped. ‘Where are you taking me?’

A look of exasperation crossed Elijah’s face. ‘We can speak about it after you’ve talked with your mother.’

‘Back to Germany?’

Elijah laughed. ‘Was that where your mother told you I was?’

I looked away. Mum had even lied about that. Fury flooded through me.

‘She was just trying to protect you, Theodore.’ Elijah tutted. ‘Is that where you were going when RAGE and Lewis found you?’

I said nothing.

‘I see. You made the connection with Richard Smith, who
was
in Germany,’ Elijah said, slowly. ‘Clever. And not really a coincidence. I did live in Germany for a long time. And Richard
was
there on business for me. Clever of you, Theodore.’

I couldn’t bear the patronising tone of his voice. ‘So where are we going then?’

‘Somewhere safe,’ he said. ‘Now, please speak to your—’

‘What was wrong with where we were before?’ I clenched my jaw. ‘Why is Rachel still there?’

Elijah pressed his lips together so tightly they were almost white.

‘Your mother,’ he said, firmly, holding out the phone.