The Quest (26 page)

Alia woke too, but refused to budge, so I sat silently holding her until Candace came up to announce breakfast.

“The Wolves will be eating with us this morning,” said Candace. “If you like, I’ll bring something up so you can eat here.”

“No,” I said. “We’d better get acquainted.”

Once Candace had left, I looked down at Alia again, whose eyes were still puffy and a little wet.

I asked uncertainly, “Is this really okay, Alia? Us working with Ed Regis?”

My sister gave me a watery smile.
“It’s okay, Addy. I’m sorry about last night. I just felt like crying a bit.”

“It’s alright,” I said, hugging her. “I kind of felt the same way. You had a long day yesterday. Come on, let’s go get some breakfast. We’ll probably need to leave this house today. We’ve got some people back in Walnut Lane for you to take care of, too.”

As Alia clambered off of me, I noticed that Terry’s eyes were slightly open.

I jumped to my feet and asked excitedly, “Terry? Are you awake?”

Terry’s lips barely moved as she croaked, “Where am I? What happened to me?”

“It’s a long story,” I said, grinning. “Welcome back.”

I said to Alia, “Call Dr. Land.”

“I already did,” Alia replied aloud, and I heard the doctor’s footsteps approaching.

After giving Terry a once-over, Dr. Land told me to bring up some breakfast. “Something soft,” he said. “And knock when you return.”

Alia stayed with Dr. Land as he examined Terry.

Making my way down to the dining room, I was met with the smell of bacon and eggs, and I found the Wolves sharing the table with my team. The dining table was too small for everyone to sit together, so several had taken their plates to the sofas in the living room.

Scott was busy explaining our background to Ed Regis, who nodded curtly to me as I entered the dining room. I saw that Ed Regis had cleaned himself up, shaved, and found some new clothes from the Angels’ wardrobes. His bruises were completely healed too. However reluctantly, Alia had done a thorough job, and I saw that the other Wolves were in equally good condition.

“Terry’s awake,” I announced, but everyone already knew that from Dr. Land.

Several of my team asked in unison, “How is she?”

I shrugged. “I’m a waiter, not a doctor.”

Scott helped me prepare three breakfast trays, and I levitated them with me back to Terry’s bedroom. There was nowhere for me to sit at the dining table anyway, so I decided that Alia and I would eat upstairs after all.

Dr. Land was just finishing with Terry when I returned.

“Oh, good,” said Terry. “I’m starving.”

Terry was not only wide awake, but sitting up on her bed. I suspected that Dr. Land’s earlier prognosis that Terry wouldn’t be walking for several days was going to be challenged within hours.

I had prepared a bowl of cereal for Terry, but she preferred the bacon and eggs. Taking the tray in her lap, she refused to let Alia hand-feed her.

“I’m okay,” insisted Terry. “Dr. Land told me I was out for a day, but he won’t tell me where this is or anything else.”

Dr. Land smiled, saying to me, “I figured that she should hear it from you. Call if you need anything.”

Dr. Land left, and as we ate, I gave Alia and Terry the details starting from the Angels’ raid on our house.

Alia had seen Max die, but she hadn’t known about Felicity. She shed a few more tears over Susan’s sister, but it was Terry that I really felt sorry for.

Terry said dejectedly, “I guess our trainees weren’t as ready as I thought. Maybe this whole thing was a bad idea. Maybe they are just kids.”

“Oh, they’ve learned a thing or two from us over the months,” I said, and Alia and Terry listened quietly as I told them how our trainees had rallied to save them.

I explained how we spent the day practicing the breach, and how, despite several minor mistakes, we came through unscathed.

“I was expecting to lose at least one or two more,” I said honestly, “but everyone made it. Even Candace managed to shoot straight for once.”

“You shouldn’t have risked them for us,” said Terry, and Alia nodded in agreement.

“I didn’t,” I replied. “They insisted on helping. They’re fighters now, Terry. They’re not kids anymore. We’ve trained them well. Give them a little credit.”

Terry wasn’t convinced. “Well, it’s amazing no one died, but I still say you were just lucky.”

“You’re not giving up on them, are you?” I asked. “After all that they did for us?”

Terry shook her head. “Maybe they’ll be ready in a couple more years, but I can’t ask them to come to the Historian with us. We need to go soon. It’s already been almost a year since we left New Haven.”

I smiled. “Well, I don’t want to risk them any further either.”

Then I turned to Alia and said, “Call the major up.”

Terry raised her eyebrows. “Major? What major?”

Ed Regis stepped into the room a few seconds later.

“May I introduce Major Edward Regis of the Wolves,” I said to Terry, and laughed as her jaw dropped.

Ed Regis stepped forward and reached out to shake Terry’s hand, but Terry was still too shocked to move.

“I found us an army,” I said quietly. “Ed Regis here and five more men.”

Technically, six Wolves was hardly an army, but it was a good start and I could personally vouch for their skills.

“We’re yours to command,” said Ed Regis, who already knew from Scott that Terry was our leader.

Terry finally shook Ed Regis’s hand, saying, “I don’t like Wolves very much, but I suppose beggars can’t be choosers.”

Ed Regis turned to me. “Well, I guess it’s official.”

After an uncomfortable few seconds, Ed Regis extended his hand out to me. I glared up at him for a moment, and then nodded and slowly shook his hand.

Alia was next, and she smiled bravely as she shook Ed Regis’s hand too.

“Thank you again for healing me and my team, Alia,” said Ed Regis.

“I’m a healer, Mr. Regis,” Alia said quietly. “It’s my job.”

“Call me Ed.”

Alia shook her head. “I don’t think so, Mr. Regis.”

I cringed when Alia called the Wolf “Mr. Regis,” but I agreed that it was hard to know how to refer to this man. I had settled for “Ed Regis,” so my sister was the politer of us.

Before leaving the Angels’ house, Terry insisted that we clean the place up so as to leave as little trace of our visit as possible. I was for simply burning the house down, destroying the evidence like the Angels had done with the towboat, but Terry didn’t want to cause any more police-related trouble for Mrs. Harding.

We first moved all the corpses from the upstairs bedroom down into the basement. For a variety of reasons that I won’t go into here, dead bodies really stink, and I was quite relieved when we got it done. There wasn’t much that could be done about the Angels’ blood on the carpets, but we vacuumed the floor twice and wiped the house clean of our fingerprints as best as we could.

That left the problem of the single surviving Angel.

Since Walnut Lane was in the middle of an evacuation, we couldn’t exactly take the Angel hider with us. Ed Regis offered to take him down to the basement and shoot him, but I stopped the Wolf, saying, “Hey, we spared your worthless hide.”

In the end, we decided to let the hider go free. He wasn’t even an official member of the Seraphim, and was hardly a danger to us. Besides, this Angel could look after the house and make sure that no one stumbled upon the dead too quickly.

As we exited the house, Terry insisted that she didn’t need to be carried on the stretcher, but Alia wasn’t having that. Fixing Terry with a stern look, she said, “When people are shooting at us, I listen to you. When you’re injured, Teresa Henderson, you listen to me. Understand?”

Terry didn’t complain too much. I suspected she probably could walk, but not very well or far just yet.

There were nineteen of us returning to Walnut, and we couldn’t all fit in Merlin’s van and Dr. Land’s SUV, so we took both cars that we had found parked next to the Angels’ house.

I sat with Candace and Alia in the back seat of the SUV. It was only when we were halfway back to Walnut Lane that I noticed something missing from my sister.

“Where’s your pendant, Alia?” I asked.

Alia occasionally wore her bloodstone under her shirt, and I had assumed that was where it was, but now I saw that there was no leather cord around her neck.

“Oh,” Alia said sadly, touching her chest where the pendant usually rested. “Steven took it. He didn’t even want it. He just wanted to take it away. And then Lazlo’s witch blasted it into a million pieces. She said that’s what she’d do to my fingers if I tried to escape.”

“I’m sorry,” I said. “But better the stone than your fingers.”

Alia sighed. “I know.”

Like myself, Alia had worn her pendant day and night for years, ever since Cindy had given it to her as a reward for giving up her P-46 tattoo. I knew that she felt it was a part of her body because that was how Cat’s amethyst felt to me. Once you get used to something like that, it feels awkward not to have it on you. Maybe not as bad as losing an arm like Terry did, but sort of the same.

“Tell you what,” I said brightly, “I’ll get you a new one for your birthday, okay?”

“Really?”

I nodded. “And in the meantime,” I added, removing my amethyst and putting it around her neck, “you hang on to this one for me again.”

Alia fingered the stone and smiled. “Thanks, Addy.”

We arrived back in Walnut Lane in the early afternoon.

Her joy in seeing Terry alive notwithstanding, Mrs. Harding blew her top when she discovered who we had brought to town.

“You honestly cannot expect me to allow these men into our ranks, Teresa!” said Mrs. Harding at our doorstep.

The Wolves were already inside the Refugee House, and Mrs. Harding refused to enter.

“Adrian and I will answer for them,” said Terry, who was still on her stretcher but sitting up.

Mrs. Harding argued, “We can’t take them to the mountain camp. I will not allow it.”

“That is no problem,” replied Terry. “We’re not going to the camp either. We’re going to the Historian, and the Wolves will leave with me, Adrian and Alia as soon as we’re ready, probably within a few days.”

Mrs. Harding gave Terry an incredulous look. “You’re taking Wolves to the Historian?”

“That is correct,” Terry said evenly.

Merlin said, “I will be going with them too.”

Terry and I turned to Merlin, who smiled at us, saying, “You’ll need a hider.”

“Very well,” Mrs. Harding said with a huff. “Make sure your
guests
do not leave the house until they are ready to go.”

“Not a problem, Mrs. Harding,” said Terry. “I apologize again for all the trouble.”

Merlin held the door open for us and I wheeled Terry’s stretcher into our house.

Alia was already upstairs tending to Walter, Heather and Rachael, so Terry took this opportunity to try standing on her own legs. She seemed a little off balance at first, but didn’t fall over.

The six Wolves were standing in one corner of our dojo, looking uncomfortably unsure where to be.

“You’ll all be sharing a single room tonight,” Terry informed them, and then turned to me. “Adrian, show them to Steven’s old room.”

“Why me?” I asked.

“Why not you?!” snapped Terry, which proved she had recovered.

“Alright, come on,” I said wearily to the crowd.

The Wolves followed me upstairs to the smallest bedroom. I helped gather the few spare blankets we had left in the house, but informed the men that they were going to be sleeping on the floor without mats.

“That’s no problem,” said Ed Regis. “We’re quite used to it by now.”

Technically, Felicity and Susan’s room on the third floor was also open now, but I wasn’t feeling generous enough to offer a second room to a bunch of Wolves. Besides, having them stay together would make it easier for us to keep an eye on them.

“What’s that in your hand?” I asked. Since returning to Walnut Lane, Ed Regis had been carrying around a small black laptop-like device.

“This?” asked Ed Regis, holding it up. “It’s a little toy I reclaimed from Lazlo’s house this morning. I thought it might come in handy.”

“What is it?”

“It’s our portable psionic database,” said Ed Regis. “It contains information on known and suspected psionics and faction members. The Angels took it from our APC when they captured us.”

I didn’t bother asking what an APC was. I was more interested in the database. “Can I see it?” I asked.

“Of course,” Ed Regis replied unhesitatingly. “It is password protected, though. One wrong entry and all the data is lost, so you have to type carefully.”

Ed Regis opened the laptop and pressed the power button. The nine-inch screen immediately displayed a little window asking for a password.

“Is that what they were torturing you for?” I asked.

“It was one of the things they wanted,” said Ed Regis. “They didn’t even have a delver, so it took a while before they were convinced that I was telling them the true password.”

“You gave them the password?”

Ed Regis shrugged. “I figured I had nothing to lose. In fact, I pretty much answered all of their questions truthfully.”

“Then why did they keep hurting you?”

“They were enjoying themselves too much,” said Ed Regis, typing in the password.

The screen flashed once and changed to a search engine. There were a number of text boxes for looking people up by name, age, faction, psionic powers, eye color, hair color, facial scars and various other criteria.

“Who are you looking for?” asked Ed Regis.

I shrugged. “I was just curious. Can I try a search?”

“Sure,” said Ed Regis, handing the device over to me. “Go nuts.”

I knew that Ed Regis had nothing to lose now by giving me his top-secret toy, but I had to (very grudgingly) admit that he was making a first-rate effort to stay on my good side. I found his friendliness thoroughly irritating because I still wanted to hate this man, and he wasn’t making it at all easy.

“It’s a touch screen,” explained Ed Regis. “Just touch the field you want to search in and type in your query.”