He jerked his chin at his sons. “Let’s go.” He turned to head back inside.
Wyatt stared at him. “You can’t be serious. They’re–”
“You heard me,” Richard retorted.
“No!” Wyatt shouted. “No, you’re not…”
He exhaled sharply and ran for the car.
“Wyatt!” his father yelled.
I moved to intercept him.
Clay grabbed me and spun, trying to toss me aside. I stumbled and then threw an elbow back, hitting his midsection.
The car door slammed. Owen hit the gas.
He and Wyatt sped away.
Clay chuckled. I turned as he stepped back, holding up his hands with a smirk.
I slammed my fist into his face.
“Hey!” Richard barked as his son staggered.
I ignored him, looking to Baylie. “Where is she? Where’d she ask you to meet her?”
“M-Mariposa Beach.”
“Noah!” Maddox called.
I glanced over and then caught his keys from the air.
“Hold on!” Dad snapped, starting toward me.
I ran for Maddox’s car.
Behind me, I could feel Clay trying to catch up, with Dad close behind. From the porch, Richard yelled protests, while Maddox kept Brock from joining the chase.
The key fob nearly broke under my thumb. The locks on Maddox’s sports car popped up.
I swung inside and slammed the door. Clay grabbed at the handle. He snarled at finding it locked, and then raised an arm to smash through the glass.
The ignition turned over. I crushed the pedal to the floor as his arm swung, and the car surged forward, leaving him stumbling.
I raced from the driveway.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chloe
On a secluded park bench at the edge of the sand, we sat surrounded by bushes and watched the crowds of people.
Who made me feel like they were staring at us, even when I knew they weren’t.
I wasn’t sure how fast Baylie would get here – if she’d needed a cover story to leave, that could take some time – but as the minutes crept past, I could feel my anxiety building. Whether or not it’d been Noah she’d worried about, Baylie had still tried to hide the fact she was speaking to me. I didn’t know what that could mean, but it couldn’t be a good sign.
And meanwhile, the whole ocean lay in front of us, filled with people who’d tried to hurt me and Zeke in one way or another.
I swallowed, watching the waves roll in. Those people weren’t psychic, however. They wouldn’t just magically know that, out of all the miles and miles of coastline on the Earth, we were sitting here.
Drawing a shaky breath, I twisted on the bench to look back at the busy street and tried to make myself believe the words.
“You alright?” Zeke asked quietly.
I glanced to him. His face tight, he didn’t look at me, but kept his gaze on the crowd on the beach.
“Fine,” I replied, turning my attention back to the road.
A minute crawled by.
“Chloe, if she doesn’t show–”
“She will.”
My gaze flicked to him, and then returned to the street. Somewhere between a city road and a scenic highway, the wide thoroughfare bordered the beach parking lot and was filled with everything from convertibles to minivans rushing along in either direction.
But not her car.
“What the–” Zeke began.
I turned as he rose to his feet, his eyes locked on the beach. Heart racing, I followed his gaze.
Niall was walking at the edge of the tide.
A breath left Zeke. He started forward and then paused, throwing a quick look back as though torn between going toward his brother and staying by me.
I got up and followed him down to the sand, scanning the area as I went. Niall caught sight of us as we came closer.
He grinned with relief. “
There
you are. We’ve been–” He glanced to the crowds and tossed a nod at someone there. “We’ve been looking all over.”
“What are you doing here?” Zeke asked. “Are you okay?”
“Fine. Woke up a few hours ago. Jirral told me where you were headed and,” he shrugged, “we’ve been looking ever since.”
I glanced over as several men walked up, something in their stance and eyes giving them away as dehaian. They nodded to Niall, and then took up positions near us and returned their attention to the crowds.
“Are you guys alright?” Niall continued. “What are you doing out here like this?”
Zeke twitched his head toward me. “She’s got a friend coming to pick her up.”
Niall paused. “Zeke, this place is…” He lowered his voice as several kids ran by. “Damn, I mean, it’s
crawling
with mercenaries. I don’t even know how you missed them to get here.”
“We didn’t.”
Niall’s brow furrowed and then he seemed to see the thin line from the knife slice on Zeke’s chest. He blinked. “Look,” he managed, “you need to come back home. Both of you. Ren–”
Zeke shook his head. “No way. Not with what happened to her last time we were there. She needs to get out of here, Niall. There’s no other option.”
“But that’s the thing.” Niall let out a breath in a tight chuckle. “Ren, um… he believes you. About her, and the–” A pair of surfers jogged past. “The Sylphaen.”
“He does?”
Niall nodded. “He
found
Liana, Zeke. Or, I mean, his soldiers did. Found her a few miles north of Nyciena. She was swimming like hell from something, and didn’t even spot them till it was too late. She cracked, though. Told him everything after he… well, he’s Ren. You know how much of a jackass he can be when he wants something.”
I shifted uncomfortably at the words, and Niall gave me a sympathetic look.
“And he doesn’t still think Chloe was involved?” Zeke pressed.
“Not after Liana started spouting off crazy shit, talking about Chloe being some ‘abomination’ thing. Real end-of-the-world type stuff. Finally got the truth through even
his
thick head.”
I shivered, though from memories of the Sylphaen’s babble or the possibility Ren finally believed I wasn’t a spy, I didn’t know. But I looked to Zeke, and I could see the cautious hope in his eyes.
He wanted us to go back, I could tell.
Nervously, I bit my lip. This was great for him. Wonderful, really.
But spies could still be there. They could still try to hurt what family Zeke had left.
I shook my head at the look in his eyes. His brow drew down.
“There could be more out there,” I reminded him quietly.
“And there are hundreds of soldiers on alert now. They won’t–”
“You don’t know that.”
A breath left him and he looked away. His brow furrowed. “You don’t belong back there, Chloe.”
“Zeke, I have to–”
“You don’t.”
I grimaced and turned my gaze away, unable to meet his eyes.
Niall glanced between us. “We need to get moving. Like I said, those guys are everywhere around here.”
I nodded. “You both should, yeah.”
Zeke scowled. “I’m not leaving you here.”
Frustration rose in me. “I can’t–”
“He’s right,” Niall interjected. “Chloe, what are you going to do if those Sylphaen guys are following your friend? They’ll probably leave anyone else alone if you’re not around – I mean, they don’t care about them, right? But if you’re there, and it’s just you two on the highway somewhere…”
Worry clouded his eyes.
I looked away.
“You’ll do your friend more good keeping them out of this,” Niall finished. “And Zeke’s right. Home is safer. Ren… well, you might’ve noticed he’s a bit territorial. If he thinks you matter to our family,” he glanced to Zeke briefly, “he’ll keep you safe.”
The grimace returned to my face. I couldn’t do this to Baylie. Not again. I’d disappeared only a few days ago, when I’d left with the dehaians rather than go back to land.
That hadn’t been my choice. But this was.
“I know this is hard, Chloe,” Niall said. “But–”
“They could kill her,” Zeke finished quietly. “You know that too.”
I hesitated, my gaze flicking to him while my mind tossed up recollections of what those psychos had done to other girls in their efforts to find me. Shivering, I tried to push the thought away.
It wouldn’t go.
“Please,” Zeke pressed. “You–”
“Okay,” I snapped.
I looked away. I knew they were right. It hurt and it sucked, but I knew they were right.
Zeke seemed to release the breath he’d been holding. He glanced to Niall. “How do we want to–”
Tires squealed in the parking lot, followed immediately by a sickening crunch of metal. We spun to see a light pole lurch sideways, while screams rose past the rows of parked cars.
I started forward. Zeke snagged my arm.
Panicked, I looked back at him.
“If it’s them,” he hissed.
Zeke twitched his chin at the guards. “Go. Check if there’s a girl in the cars.”
Two of the guards nodded and then ran toward the accident.
I shrugged off Zeke’s arm, my gaze on the parking lot. But even by letting my eyes change a bit and risking the faint glow that came with my sharpened vision, I couldn’t tell much past the glare of the sunlight and the lines of parked cars.
Seconds ticked by.
“We need to get going…” Niall urged in a low tone.
I shook my head, not looking away from what little I could see of the accident. “Not yet.”
He made a frustrated sound. I ignored him, my heart pounding while I watched to see if anyone climbed from the vehicles. Sirens rose in the distance, racing closer.
The guards came back.
“No girl in either car,” one of them reported quietly, keeping an eye to the beachgoers around us.
I swallowed. “What about the guys, then? What did they look like?”
“Chloe,” Zeke started.
“If Noah was–”
“We need to go,” Niall interrupted. “Zeke, if the Sylphaen are around…”
“Come on,” Zeke said to me, reaching out to take my arm again.
I jerked away.
His mouth tightened. “Please, Chloe. This is going to attract attention, regardless. We don’t want anyone spotting us standing here.”
For a heartbeat, I stared at him, wanting to argue even though I knew he had a point.
“Fine.”
Niall glanced to the guards. “Meet up in twenty, eh?”
They nodded. All but two of them walked away.
“Come on,” Zeke said to me.
With a last look to the accident, I followed him in the opposite direction of the other guards. We walked down the shoreline until finally we reached a place not far from where Zeke and I had first arrived.
Niall gave me a grin and then headed into the water. Swimming away from the shore, he continued along for a few minutes, and then suddenly dove beneath the waves.
Zeke glanced back the way we’d come. Confused, I followed his gaze.
From his tower, a muscled young man scanned the water, a yellow life-preserver stashed by his side.
But for the moment, he was looking in the other direction.
Zeke waited a heartbeat more, watching the young man check toward us and then return his gaze to the crowd ahead.
I followed Zeke into the water.
A quiver ran through me at the touch of the waves, and I took a quick breath, concentrating on not letting my skin change. As the water deepened, we began swimming through the tide that kept trying to push us back toward the shore.
Zeke made a small noise of approval. I glanced back.
On the beach, a police officer was walking toward the lifeguard. Calling out to the young man, he motioned to the parking lot as though asking a question.
The lifeguard turned, looking toward the accident.
“Go,” Zeke said.
We dove beneath the water.
My lungs adjusted instantly and my skin trembled with the urge to change. Holding onto mostly human form, I trailed Zeke deeper into the water, my ears still attuned for shouts of alarm from the coast behind us.
But none came. Splashing of swimmers and the rush of the waves were the only sounds.
The seafloor descended. The change shivered through me a heartbeat after it raced through him.
We took off, leaving Santa Lucina behind.
Chapter Twenty-Three
Noah
Through the shattered windshield and the crowds, I watched Chloe walk into the ocean.
And I swore.
I wanted to go to her and explain what had happened, now that my cousins couldn’t reach her, but the door was solidly jammed, the steering wheel had come down to pin my legs, and short of going greliaran on them both and scaring the hell out of the people surrounding the car, I had no way out.
She glanced back to the shore for a heartbeat, her auburn hair shining in the brilliant sunlight, and then she dove beneath the water.
I slammed a hand into the dashboard, denting the plastic in my frustration.
It’d taken me minutes on end to catch up to Owen and Wyatt, despite racing through stop signs and stoplights and praying that the cops wouldn’t see. My cousins had already arrived at the lot by the time I got here, and if not for the fact they’d parked at the end of a row of cars, I would have had almost no chance of stopping them.
And Chloe had been standing on the sand.
There hadn’t been many options. I couldn’t take them both on and be certain one of them wouldn’t slip away to reach her.
I just hoped Maddox would forgive me about his car.
Waves crashed in and rolled back out again. No fins or scales broke the surface, and on the beach, no one shouted or pointed to the space where the dehaians had disappeared.
The accident had distracted them.
Someone knocked on the window of the car, and I pulled my gaze from the water to find a cop staring down at me. Up ahead, Wyatt shouted curses, barely keeping himself from losing control in his rage. Next to him, Owen resorted to a glare, though I knew he’d try more once he could leave the driver’s seat.
Which, considering they were trapped between Maddox’s car and a light pole, would be a while.
The cop motioned to other officers farther in the crowd. Past the cars around me, I saw an ambulance pull into the lot.
I sighed. There’d be hell to pay for this. But Chloe was safe. From my family, at least, she was safe.