Authors: L. J Charles
Niele looked at her, eyes dark with fear. “Bad lady, Mamma.” Her eyelids fluttered closed, and the ice cream cone slipped from her trembling fingers.
Panic slammed into Loyria. She dropped her cone, scanned the area for Niele’s bad lady, didn’t see anyone, carefully scooped the unconscious child into her arms, and then laid her on the back seat. Why hadn’t she waited for James before making this trip into town? A quick check eased Loyria’s immediate fears. Niele’s pulse was strong, her breathing steady and even. This had happened once before when her curious daughter had gotten hold of Loyria’s Busse Boss Jack. Loyria and James had lectured their daughter until they were hoarse, and then grounded her from Aukele’s maze for two weeks. It was a dreadful fourteen days for all of them, but Niele hadn’t touched a weapon since.
Loyria stroked Niele’s cheek with trembling fingers. “Wake up, sweetie. I need to see those big blue eyes.” Where was the nearest emergency room? If she yelled for help, would Ms. Schumann hear? Niele would be all right. It was just the combination of a hot day and cold ice cream. And she’d bent over too fast. That had to be it. Other than the sniffles, Niele had never been sick. Never.
She moved her tiny hand, tried to brush Loyria away. And then those gorgeous blue eyes opened…and welled with tears. “B-bad, M-Mamma. The l-lady wants to h-hurt us.”
“There’s no one here but us, sweetie. We’re okay.” Her voice shook.
Get a grip or you’ll scare Niele.
“Do you hurt anywhere? Your head?”
Niele struggled to sit up. “No, Mamma. The orange paper. B-bad lady.”
Loyria’s breath caught. Oh, dear God, Niele had passed out when she touched that paper. Where the hell was that flyer?
Loyria scrambled around, looking. Not seeing. Not the time to be looking. Needed to get Niele home where they were safe. “Are you okay to get in your booster? Not dizzy?”
Niele plopped in the seat and buckled her seatbelt. “I want Daddy.”
“Okay. We’ll go home right now.” Loyria always carried Niele’s favorite Tommee Tippee cup in the car because of the heat, but this was the first time she’d been so damned grateful for the precaution. She handed it to Niele. “Can you drink some of this? I know it’s warm, but…I need to be sure you’re all right before I start driving.”
Her daughter wrinkled her nose, then drank. “I’m fine, Mamma. But we gotta go home now.”
Loyria kissed Niele’s forehead, squeezed her in a smothering hug, and then inched out of the back seat. Where the hell was that flyer? There. A tiny corner of orange poked out from under the front seat. Loyria grabbed it.
Niele let out a bone-chilling wail. “Don’t touch that, Mamma. It’s bad.”
Loyria tucked it under her arm, and tipped Niele’s chin up. “We’re okay. I just need to bring the paper home to show Daddy, and then we’ll get rid of it. I promise.”
Niele nodded, tears spilling down her cheeks. “Hurry, Mamma. I want Daddy.”
Weak with panic, Loyria dropped into the driver’s seat.
Stay strong. Niele needs you. James needs you.
She started the car, cranked the AC to high, and then glanced at the orange flyer.
There were only three words on it.
I’m watching you.
It was Fion Connor’s handwriting.
CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN
Manoa Valley, Oahu
August, 1985
LOYRIA IGNORED THE BURNING IN
her gut and slipped into surveillance mode. They’d taught her well at The Farm. Unforgettably well, thank God. She detoured through the hills and valleys of Manoa, completely focused on watching her rearview mirror. A tail wasn’t acceptable. She was careful, not relaxing until she was sure they were clear and had turned onto the grass road leading to their home. For the first fifteen minutes Niele had whined a bit about wanting her father, but then she’d fallen asleep. And now Loyria had nothing but the hum of the car engine and her too-fast heartbeat to fill the empty space in her chest. She and James would have to run again. Today, maybe. No later than tomorrow.
Careful not to wake her sleeping daughter, Loyria secured the car and then carried Niele through the maze, into the house, and tucked her into bed. Hopefully, she’d stay asleep until Loyria got word to her parents and Fred. But first, James.
He was in his office. She sucked in a gasp of breath, two, yanked the crumpled sheet of orange paper from her pocket, smoothed out the wrinkles, and opened the door to James’s office.
He greeted her with a warm smile. “My girls are back from getting ice cream already?” He looked around. “Where’s Niele?”
“Sleeping. It was…there was an incident. Her gift is in her fingers, James. She sees things, you know that. We’ve suspected. And today…” The words wouldn’t come. Loyria centered the paper on James’s desk.
It took him three seconds before he surged out of his chair, knocking it over. “You’re okay? Both of you? No one followed you here? And who wrote this, do you know?”
“It’s Fion’s handwriting. No one followed, and yes we’re fine. Niele fainted for what was the longest minute of my life, but she’s okay now. Terrified of Fion. Called her a bad lady. We have to run, James, and keep running until Niele is old enough to fight. And we have to hide her. Prepare her as best we can.” She looked at him, tears spilling down her cheeks. “It was selfish of us to bring her into our world, knowing this could happen. We have to fix it as best we can.”
His arms circled her, strong and warm. “I don’t regret our daughter. Haven’t since before she was conceived. Makani will tell you that it was her destiny to be born to us, that children choose their parents. I believe her. Niele has a role to play in life that’s bigger than either of us understand yet. But you’re right. Until she’s ready to step into her future, it’s our job to protect her. We can do that. We
will
do that.”
For the first time since Niele fainted, Loyria managed a full breath. “You’re right. I know all that. Believe it, but she’s still so small, James. It’s too soon for us to have to run again.”
He sputtered. “Fate’s never been big on giving us a choice. I’ll drive over to the North Shore and get your parents. They’ll need to be here for this discussion. Stay safe, honey. We’ll get through this.”
She nodded, her forehead bumping against his chest. “I know. It’s just so soon. Makani warned me years ago, and I should have been more prepared.” Loyria backed out of James’s arms. “My mother has probably seen what happened by now. Actually, it’s odd that she and Aukele aren’t here. Oh, my God. Surely Fion hasn’t gotten to them! There’s nothing that links them to us. Not anywhere. We have to find them, James. Now.”
An alarm went off from one of the surveillance cameras James had installed on the property. They simultaneously whirled to face the bank of wall-mounted screens while reaching for their weapons. In an instant, James had a .9mm Sig Sauer in his hand, Loyria her favored Boss Jack. “I’ve never seen that car. You?” James asked.
Whoever was driving parked deep in the bushes, and within moments Makani, Aukele, and another couple emerged and entered the maze. “Why did they bring Millie and Harlan here?”
Loyria nodded. “Besides being my parents’ closest friends, they studied Huna together, and moved up the ranks of the Hawaiian underground intelligence along with Makani and Aukele.” She sheathed her blade. “They’re here to help us, James. I’m sure of it. Thank God for Makani’s sight.”
THE SIX TERRIFIED AND EXHAUSTED
people sat around James and Loyria’s kitchen table. They spoke in hushed tones so they wouldn’t wake Niele, but no matter how diligently they searched for an explanation, not one of them was able to figure out how Fion Connor had found them.
Millie rested her hand over Loyria’s. “I took care of you often when you were little like Niele. Do you remember?”
Loyria worked up a smile. “Yes. They’re some of my best memories. You always made me cookies, even better than Makani’s, and that’s saying something. And Harlan let me play in his garden.” She narrowed her eyes at him. “But there was more going on out there than I knew, wasn’t there, Harlan?”
“Sure was. And I’m not sharin’ any more about it.” He folded his arms over his chest and hummed a ditty.
Millie kicked him under the table with an audible thump. “Behave yourself. We have a new child to help raise now.”
Makani inhaled a shaky breath. “You’re moving back to the mainland, daughter. There’s a house. It’s nice, and it’s safe.” Her eyes welled with tears. “But I won’t see Niele again. She won’t return to the Islands until she’s an adult and ready to step into her Huna training. Aukele will be her teacher.”
Loyria reached to hug her mother. “That can’t be right. There’s no way we’ll be able to protect Niele there. Not without help. An army.”
Harlan coughed, self-conscious. “That’s why we’re going with you, Loyria. Millie and I are your new bodyguards. From what Makani told us on the way over here, we’ll be taking care of Niele after…”
Loyria stiffened her spine. “After James and I are murdered. Yes, Makani told me. But we have time yet. Niele will be grown before that happens.”
James came up behind her and rested his hands on her shoulders. “I still don’t understand why we can’t stop it since we know it will happen. Even if we don’t know the exact time frame.”
Makani grabbed a tissue and mopped the tears from her face. “Because fate trumps the gift of sight. It’s a curse I’ve had to live with every moment of my adult life.”
James blew out a sigh, then sat down. “Protecting Niele is the most important thing right now. I’ve been thinking about it since that first moment I held her in my arms. We need to find a way to tell her our story.”
Loyria nodded and sighed. “Yes. It will all rest on her shoulders one day. No matter how vigilant we are, and how dedicated I am to finding an antidote for this toxin, my life span won’t be long enough to finish the work. I hate that she’s the single living person who has the altered DNA from the formula I consumed before she was born, but we can’t change history. We
can
make damn sure she has every bit of knowledge necessary to protect herself.”
“You can’t ever come back here, daughter,” Makani said, her voice trembling. “But this will be Niele’s home. One that she’ll share with her husband and children.”
Loyria’s heart shattered, broken with longing to see Niele married and with a family. “Will you draw pictures of them for me, Makani? Of Niele’s family? It will help James and me get through this.”
Makani nodded. “Yes. And they will be one of the things you hide for our Niele to find when she’s ready to accept her Scottish heritage. And this.” She tapped James’s grandmother’s ring. “It is one of the clues my granddaughter will use to guide her to the Circle of Nine.”
Loyria slipped the ring off. “We’ll leave it in the safe here at the house.” She handed the ring to James. “I know you’re uncomfortable with the Circle of Nine, but it is part of our daughter’s future path. We have to trust that it’s right to leave the ring.”
James shook his head. “I’m sure it’s a bad idea.” He looked long and hard at Makani, then nodded. “It has to be her choice, but I don’t like it.”
“I agree, James. I don’t like it either.” Loyria’s eyes welled with tears. “But whatever your father experienced with the Circle of Nine has been embedded in Niele’s DNA. She’ll need to know about it one day.”
He took her hand. “We’ll build a map for her. A guide that will hopefully also keep her safe. You’re right, Makani, clues and a map of sorts are the most help we can give her.”
“I need to phone Fred.” Loyria sandwiched James’s hand between hers. “It’s time for us to face our destiny as well.”
The eerie thwhop-thwhop of a nearby helicopter filled the room.
CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT
LOYRIA RAN TO THE WINDOW
and looked up. “It’s military. They’re landing here.”
Terror shot through James, and he raced to the window. “They can’t land. There’s no room. And the house isn’t visible from the air, not the way it’s tucked into the shadow of the mountains.”
The drone of the chopper closed in on them, and then faded.
Some of the tension left James’s shoulders. “Gone. Must have been a screwed-up military exercise. There are bases here on Oahu for every damn branch of the armed forces so—”
His voice was drowned out by the rumbling vibration of a chopper landing nearby.
“Aukele. Makani. Stay here with Niele. The noise might have scared her.” He palmed his .9mm and checked it. “Harlan. Millie. Do you have weapons, and are you proficient?”
They both nodded, but it was a moot gesture since their weapons were in their hands and they were poised for action. “We’ll cover the house, James. You and Loyria take the breach site.”
James gave Harlan a curt nod, then ran to catch up with Loyria. She was halfway out the door, weapon at the ready.
WHY HADN’T SHE MADE IT
a point to phone Fred immediately? Talking things out with her family had stalled any action on his part for…too long. Sweat crawled down Loyria’s back. She checked the immediate area, exited the front door, and did a fast scan of the perimeter before she entered the maze.