Guardian of Atlantis (The Children of Atlantis) (24 page)

16

Brown leaves floating down

Covering the silent grave

Like a snow blanket.

             
--Raven Weir’s journal

Two hours later, Raven stood in the woods behind her house, watching
it
.

No sounds.

No lights.

No movement, inside or out.

Raven was cold, wet, miserable, and angry. And it was her anger keeping her going.

The first blues of
dawn inched their way into the night sky. Raven knew if she waited much longer, she would be a sitting duck crossing the yard. It was now or never if she wanted the darkness to give her some cover.

Raven ran across the yard. At the back porch steps she stopped and listened. No sounds, other than the
slow
pitter patter of the rain, came to her ears. Slowly she went up the steps, careful to make as little noise as possible. She grabbed the door knob and turned. The door swung open with ease.

Raven took deep breath and let it out slowly.

The first obstacle littered the kitchen floor
.

Raven closed her eyes
and tried to picture the
floor. She remembered there was glass everywhere, but most of it was concentrated around the kitchen table area. A little night vision would be helpful around now, she thought. Raven slowly stepped into the kitchen. Using the countertop as her guide, she followed it around the room until
stepped into the hallway leading to the
garage.

A sigh of relief escaped from her.

CRUNCH!

Raven’s heart stopped. She froze. Afraid to even breathe, Raven looked around the room waiting for something, anything, to jump out at her.

The minute she stood there waiting was an eternity, but nothing came out of the darkness. Raven quietly opened the door leading to the garage. The dank smell of old gas greeted her, causing her to wrinkle her nose in disgust. She stepped into the garage. Her eyes, already used to the darkness, made out the shapes of the washer and dryer. She inched her way over to them. Dropping to her knees she felt for the trap door.

It was closed.

Running her hand across the wooden edge, Raven found the handle. Grasping it t
ightly, and wishing she had thought to pick up some
kind of weapon, she opened the trap door.

No one screamed.

No one cried.

Not even the sound of breathing came to her ears.

Billy, Pauline, and Sheena were down there somewhere. Raven went down the steps into the bowels of the house. She put her hand up on the low ceiling to help her keep her balance on the steps. Her hand touched a pipe. Raven frowned. Shouldn’t the house be making normal houses noises like creaks and groans?

She stopped and listened.

Not a sound. Even the house was quiet.

Not normal, Raven told herself. She reached for the light switch on her right side. Sliding her hand, she found it and flipped it up.

Nothing happened.

“Great!” she mumbled. The next light source was in the center of the room, an old fashioned pull string.

She fought the desire to flee for her own safety, knowing that was the cowardly thing to do. Besides, there’s no one else who can help you save them. Only you, her brain whispered.

Raven made her way down the path created by the boxes lining the walls. “Can we say pack rats?” she grumbled when she tripped over something in the middle of the path.

A
few minutes later, she felt a string
brush against her face. Her hands immediately went
up to protect herself. The string
brushed against her hands. Raven grabbed it and sighed with relief.

She pulled the chain and light flooded the area, and Raven was forced to close her eyes against the sudden brightness.

Something rattled in one of the corners.

Raven tried to open her eyes but the light was too bright. Shielding them from the light with her hand, she blinked several times until she could see. In the far corner were Billy, Pauline, and Sheena, gagged and tightly bound in chains. Raven saw her relief reflected in their eyes. She rushed over and one by one pulled off the gags.

“What happened?” asked Billy.

“One minute we’re searching through the boxes and the next…” Pauline looked from one person to the next. “I remember a really high pitched sound and then waking up with these chains on.”

“Agent Morrison.
It was some sort of trap.” Raven found the end of Billy’s chain hooked to one of the links behind him. She unfastened it and unwound the chains. “Why didn’t you break the chains?”

“Iron,” said Billy.

“Iron?” asked Raven.

“We can’t break through iron.” Pauline shrugged her shoulders. “A genetic flaw meant as a way to keep us caged.”

Once free Billy got up and flexed his arms to get blood flowing back in them. “How come you’re not tied up?” he asked. He moved to untie Sheena while Raven worked on Pauline.

“It seems one of her men in black whisked me out just as the trap was sprung,” said Raven.

“So he’s on our side,” said Sheena. She flexed her arms once the chains were gone.

“No.” Raven shook her head.

“But he got you out, right?” asked Billy.

“It wasn’t because he wanted t
o help me.” Raven stood up, and
helped Pauline get to her feet.

“What happened?” asked Billy.

Raven shook her head. “Later. Right now he’s busy getting a steel rod out of his thigh.” She looked around the cellar. “We’ve got to get Ethan and the other two and get out. I don’t even know the names of the two who’re in the study.”

“Jared and Chris
.”
Pauline patted Raven’s arm. “You’ll get all the names. They weren’t exactly introduced to you.”

Raven gave her a quick smile. “I don’t know where Morrison is. She could be anywhere in the house or she could be outside somewhere. Can you get the two out of the study? I’m going upstairs to get Ethan.”

“I’ll go with you,” said Billy.

“No. Go with the girls. If Ethan’s the bait in another trap, I don’t want you to get caught too.”

“I don’t like this,” growled Billy.

“It’s not a matter of what you like. It’s just the way it’s going to be.” Raven tried to make her voice sound tougher than she felt. “Do I make myself clear?”

“But—”

“No buts.” Raven cut off Pauline before she could say anything else. “Let’s go. Be careful. I didn’t try turning on any
other
lights. But then I figure you can see in the dark a lot better than I can.”

Sheena nodded.

At the stairs leading up to the garage, Billy insisted on going up first to make sure the area was clear. To save an argument, Rav
en let him go first and then le
d the way back into the kitchen.

“I don’t smell her and I got a good whiff of her at The Double Shot,” whispered Billy.

“Go get Chris
and Jared. As soon as I get Ethan, we’ll meet you outside the front door.” Raven slipped around them before they could say or do anything to change her plan, and headed upstairs as fast as she dared.

Raven stopped as soon as she could see the second floor landing and down the hallway. It was clear except for the journal she had dropped when Xander kidnapped her. She had three rooms to check. Four, if she counted the attic. She didn’t want to waste her time with the empty rooms, but which one should she choose? At the top of the stairs, Raven stopped to look at the door to her mom’s room.

She opened it
and stuck her head in. “Ethan?” she called softly. No answer came. She shook her head and closed the door.

Raven didn’t bother looking in her room. If Ethan had been dragged in there, the journal wouldn’t still be in the doorway where she dropped it. That left the attic and the spare bedroom, and she locked the attic when they came out.

Please let this be right, she pleaded with whoever else happened to be listening.

Raven moved quietly to the spare bedroom, put her ear to the door and listened. Not a sound came from the room. What if he’s not even here? What if Morrison took him somewhere else?
The questions ran through her mind.

She reached for the knob and slowly turned it. Raven opened the door a little at a time, hoping to see any danger before it actually got her. She let go of the knob and let the door finish swinging open on its own. Early morning light filled the room through the open window blinds.

Ethan sat tied to a chair with duct tape, even his mouth was covered with it.

He stared at her.

Raven raised her eyebrows and gestured slightly with her head, praying he would understand what she was asking.

He shook his head.

Raven breathed a sigh of relief. She wanted to rush in, but she refused to do that, just in case someone or something was in there Ethan didn’t know about. Raven stepped in and looked around the room but didn’t see anyone other than Ethan.

“There’s no way around it,” she told him. “This is going to hurt.” Raven pulled up an edge of the duct tape
covering
his mouth and yanked it off.

Ethan winced, but to his credit, he didn’t yell. “You shouldn’t have come back.”

Raven shrugged. “Couldn’t let you have all the fun.” She went over to one of the nightstands. She opened one drawer, then closed it and opened the other drawer. Finding a small pair of scissors, she closed the drawer and went back to Ethan. “Why didn’t you just rip through the duct tape?”

Ethan raised an eyebrow. “Can you rip through it?”

“U
h, no.”
She turned slightly pink. “Wow! Use number 1245.
Tying up Hellhounds.
I’ll definitely have to remember that.
For when you make me mad.”
She slowly cut through the layers of tape.

Ethan growled.

“Don’t growl at me or I’ll leave you taped to this chair.”

“You wouldn’t do that. You care. You came back for me.”

“The kind of morning I’ve already had, don’t push your luck.” Raven cut through the last of the tape.

“We need to rescue the others,” said Ethan, pulling the last of the duct tape off.

“Billy, Pauline, and She
ena should’ve already freed Chris
and Jared from the study.
If that’s where they were tied up.

Ethan stared at Raven with a look of astonishment on his face.

“What?” asked
Raven.
It kind of hurt that he didn’t believe she was capable of doing something besides run away.

“They were in the basement.”

“Yeah, so?”
Raven moved to the door and peaked around the corner. The hallway was clear.

Ethan pulled her back. “I didn’t think—”

“You didn’t think I had it in me. Did you?” accused Raven. She used the same glare on him that landed her in detention a few times over the years when she used it on the teachers at school. But she couldn’t help herself. She felt like he didn’t have any faith in her to do the right thing.

“No, I didn’t.”

Raven sighed. At least he was somewhat honest. “I couldn’t let any of you suffer because of me. Besides I’m tired of r
unning. Morrison’s just a
female.
Right?”

“I don’t—”

“How much trouble can she be without her goons?” Raven interrupted Ethan.

Ethan just looked
at her. “What happened when the
thing snatched you?”

Raven knew sooner or later he was going to ask that question, but she really didn’t want to talk about it anymore, at least for now. “I’ll tell you, but it’ll have to be later. We’ve got to go.”

“Stay behind me.” Ethan took the lead. “You owe me a story.”

Raven rolled her eyes. “Whatever.”

Ethan checked the hallway.
Sniffed the air.
He motioned to Raven to follow him.

At the bottom of the stairs, he turned to Raven.
“Where?”

“Front yard. Fastest way is to go the living room and out the front door.
That way.”
She gestured in front of her. She really wanted to tell him to figure it out since he wanted to be the big, bad alpha, but held her tongue.

Ethan nodded and took the lead again even though he didn’t know the layout.

Must be either a Hellhound thing or just
a
chauvinistic male thing, Raven thought.

CRUNCH!

CRACK!

Ethan froze and sniffed the air. He relaxed a bit. “It’s Billy.”

“What? He’s supposed to be outside.” Raven tried pushing past Ethan, but he refused to let her move.