Ambrosia Shore (19 page)

Voss waited at the center of the empty warehouse, reveling in his triumph. He pictured her face, blank and cold as the impact of his hatred manifested through the flesh of her skull. Hamlin’s beloved daughter, his dirty little secret, his smeared legacy…gone with the simple twitch of a finger. If only he could have had the pleasure to witness Hamlin’s face when he discovered her; Voss could almost taste the agony.

His victory was interrupted by heavy footsteps pounding across the concrete. “That was a reckless move,” the familiar voice bellowed in accusation.

Voss’s eyes narrowed as he replied. “It was too satisfying to resist.”

Orion strode to the rickety table, leaned his body across the surface, and centered on Voss’s gaze. “Do you realize what kind of inconvenience you have caused me? First you don’t even tell me that Hamlin has a daughter, and now this?”

Voss returned Orion’s glare without a blink. “You should be thanking me. Now you’re free to do as you please while Hamlin’s busy sniveling in a corner, recovering his losses.”

Orion clenched the table’s edge with his fist. “I’ve spent the entire weekend licking Hamlin’s wounds instead of moving forward with the plan.”

“Learn to adapt,” Voss replied dryly. “Hamlin’s defenses are down. Use his distraction to your advantage.”

“I was under the impression that I was working with a skilled professional—the notorious, meticulous Voss Hastings—not an impulsive lunatic. Perhaps…our partnership has outlived itself.”

Voss stood abruptly, moving his position above Orion’s head. “Do not threaten me with insults. You know full well that I have the power to sabotage your entire operation. And you continue to forget that I have my own objectives in this plan.”

“I’m perfectly aware of your objectives,” Orion shot back. “That doesn’t change the fact that you agreed to a certain course of action then blatantly went against that agreement without consulting me. The stunt you pulled with the girl tells me that you’ve lost focus. I can’t work with someone who doesn’t understand how to follow directions.”

Voss had to pause, to control the urge to snap Orion’s neck. “Your plan is too slow,” Voss said with discipline. “I’m losing patience.”

“I assure you; we’re close,” Orion said. “Don’t lose sight of what I have offered you in the end. Your reward will far outweigh the fleeting gratification of revenge. Imagine yourself no longer a villain, but instead like the prodigal son welcomed back with open arms into the hearts of the people of Banya, forgiven of all trespasses, with a second chance at respect and power.”

Voss was never convinced that Orion could pull off his plan to begin with, but for the time being, it was playing in his favor to have someone on the inside. If Orion could pull it off in the end, all the better.

Voss found restraint and repressed his desires. “Fine,” he said. “From here forward I submit to follow our agreement without deviation.”

“Good,” Orion said smugly. “Now you’re going to disappear. Hamlin’s dream-team may be occupied with the wild goose chase I sent them on, but it would be best if you didn’t give them a reason to veer off track. Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to go plant some gossip where the good people of Banya will be sure to find it.” Orion paused, straightened his tie. Lines creased through his annoyingly pretty face. “I don’t want you anywhere near that girl or her mother unless I personally instruct you otherwise. They are not to be harmed unless I give the green light.” Orion turned on his heel, walking away as he said, “We’ll meet again next week.”

Voss watched Orion’s back, fingering the gun he kept holstered beneath his jacket. It would be so easy to send a bullet through the man’s arrogant head. Voss toyed with the indulgent picture in his mind, let the wicked story unfold before his eyes.

But Orion’s figure disappeared around a corner. Voss slid his hand away from the trigger. For now, it was more gratifying to watch Orion manipulate Hamlin and everyone he loved, while they all clung to Orion’s false protection like an answer to their prayers.

That didn’t mean Voss planned to follow all of Orion’s commands. Through their entire banal conversation, Voss was under the assumption that when Orion referred to the incident with the girl he was talking about a dead person, right up until the moment Orion ordered him to leave the girl unharmed. If she were dead as Voss had so cheerfully assumed, this order would have never been made. That meant the girl had survived.

He knew something was awry when he noticed the missing cut on her cheek. He should have paid it more attention. Perhaps his focus had become a bit sloppy after all, blinded by his thirst for blood. Now he was certain that the glass from the broken window had left a gash across her face in the house, yet it was clearly mended by the time he had her at his mercy atop the roof.

There could only be a few explanations for someone to heal rapidly from a gunshot wound. If the person had a Watermark, a generous dose of Healing Water administered within a short period of time could easily do the trick. But, from the moment the girl was kicking and screaming in her bedroom to the instant his bullet penetrated her skull, Voss was the only person to grace her with his presence. There wasn’t a soul in sight to drop a single molecule of Healing Water on her skin. And yet, the gash on her cheek had become smooth and scar-free.

Voss could think of only one plausible explanation. The girl had a Water Briolette. And it had to be big. He shot her at point-blank range. It would take weeks, if not months, for Voss to recover from such a hit with the aid of the small crystal inside his chest. Orion had appeared upset with Voss during their confrontation, but not nearly as livid as Voss expected him to be. If Orion was ignorant of the girl’s injury, then she must have healed before anyone found her, within a matter of minutes.

 It was unheard of. That kind of power was yet to be imagined. He could almost feel the endless potential, the possibilities, gathering round to call him from obscurity.

A sinister grin cut through Voss’s face. Hamlin’s precious little girl had something he wanted, and he knew, without doubt, that he was going to take it from her.

Heather hugged me so hard I thought my lungs might pop.

“Okay,” I laughed. “I missed you too.”

I glanced over her shoulder, half expecting one of Orion’s men to burst down the school hallway and remove her grip from my body by force.

“So, does this mean your mom is finally over her break-up with the doctor?” Heather asked. She released her embrace and leaned back against my locker. “She must be taking it pretty hard to yank you out of school for a week.” Heather lowered her voice. “She’s not, like…suicidal or something is she?”

The question caught me off guard. A picture of my mother’s face when I first got home, dying and staring blankly at the wall, flashed through my mind, but I shook it away. “Um, no,” I finally said. “She’s a million times better now. But, there’s something I kind of wanted to tell you.” Heather listened intently as I continued. “Dr. Jensen didn’t really break up with my mom. He…died.”

Heather’s eyes froze open. “Are you serious?”

I winced. “Yeah. I’m serious. His funeral was last week. My mom was too overwhelmed to even go.”

Actually, my mom was in shock and dying of a broken heart, but I thought I would spare Heather the details.

“Oh my gosh,” she said, shaking her head in slow motion. “That’s so sad.”

“I know, and I’m sorry I didn’t tell you about it earlier, but my mom didn’t want me to tell anyone. I think she just wanted to be alone, you know?”

“That’s seriously crazy,” Heather said with concern. “No wonder your mom was so upset.”

“Yeah, well it gets even crazier…” I began. Just as I finished the sentence, the warning bell rang, signaling time to go to class. “Oh, that’s the bell. I guess I’ll have to tell you later.”

Heather grabbed my arm. “No, you have to tell me!”

I hesitated. It probably wasn’t the right time, but for some reason, I just had to let it out. “I met my father,” I blurted.

“What!” Heather said, jaw dropping.

The bustle of students around us started to thin. “We’ll talk about it later,” I said in a rush. “We have to get to class. And don’t tell anybody.”

A couple hours later after second period, I ran into Nicole in the hallway just before the end of break.

“Sadie, you’re back,” she said, surprised. “Um, it feels like I haven’t seen you for forever.” She didn’t seem like her usual cheerful self.

“Yeah, I know,” I replied.

Nicole looked down and rubbed her arm. “So, I heard you and Rayne got back together after the bonfire last week.”

Nicole’s hesitance immediately made sense. I hadn’t seen her since she got drunk and tried to kiss Rayne in front of everyone at the party. She probably thought I was still mad at her, but so much had happened since then, I hardly even cared anymore. There were way bigger things to worry about in the world.

“Listen,” I said, “let’s just forget about that whole thing. You weren’t yourself. It could happen to anyone.”

“Really?” she whimpered. “You don’t hate me? If I were you, I would totally hate me right now.”

I shook my head. “No, really. I’m over it. I mean, technically Rayne and I were broken up at the time, and we worked everything out. So we should just move on, right?”

Suddenly, Nicole’s arms flew around my neck. “You are the most awesome friend ever! I’m so sorry. I promise I will never,
ever
do anything like that again.” The way things were going, there was a chance Nicole would never see Rayne again anyway, but even if she did, I wasn’t worried. I knew Rayne loved me now more than ever before, just like I felt the same way about him.

Nicole pulled back. “Oh, and you don’t have to worry about anything at work; I covered for you at the yogurt shop last week. My dad just thinks you were sick.”

My parents had barely agreed to let me go back to school today. I had no idea if they would let me go to work too.

“Thanks,” I said, hesitating, “but there’s a chance I might not be able to work again this week. I’m going to try, but we’re having some family issues and—”

“I’ll take care of it,” Nicole insisted. “I kind of owe you.”

“Thanks,” I said again.

“And if you’re interested…” she added hopefully. “A bunch of people are coming to see my play this Saturday. Heather said she was planning on coming. I could make sure you don’t have to work that night if you wanted.”

“Wow, that’s already this weekend?” I said. It felt like just yesterday Nicole was running to our lunch table, squealing that she’d been given the lead role as Sandy in our school’s production of Grease. I wasn’t surprised she got it. Nicole had an amazing singing voice. “Of course I’ll come,” I said. “I wouldn’t miss it.”

As Nicole flitted happily away, I realized I just made a promise I wasn’t sure I could keep. Hopefully, if nothing went wrong all week, it wouldn’t be hard to talk my parents into letting me go. My father seemed pretty nervous as he watched me leave the house this morning though. I had to make him promise not to listen in on my conversations all day long through the tracker, unless they had a good reason to be worried about my immediate safety. Personally, I wasn’t even scared of Voss anymore. As long as I had the Water Briolette, I knew he couldn’t hurt me, at least not permanently.

When I entered my physics class for fourth period, Heather was already waiting for me near our usual seats.

“I am seriously dying from the suspense,” she said as I moved up next to her. “Hurry, before Justin gets here; you have to tell me what happened with your father.”

Luckily, Heather had finally learned that when Justin Crane was in the room, you didn’t talk about anything private. It didn’t matter if he appeared totally preoccupied or out of hearing range, he always managed to hear every word we said.

Just in case, I shot a glance at the door. I couldn’t exactly tell Heather that my father came here because Rayne sent a secret agent who was pretending to be Nicole’s cousin back to another planet to tell him an escaped convict who was supposed to be dead was planning to kill my mom. So instead, I just said, “Well, he just sort of…showed up one day.”

Heather leaned forward. “Was this before or after, you know…the doctor…”

“Actually, it was on the same day.”

“No
way
,” she gasped. “So did your mom see him too? If I were her I would probably have a heart attack. I mean, can you imagine your boyfriend dying on the same day that the long-lost father of your child comes back from out of nowhere…”

“My mom was there,” I said. “And believe me; she was in mega-shock.”

“Is your father still here?” Heather asked. “Did you talk to him and everything?”

I checked the door for Justin again, then whispered, “Not only is he still here, he’s staying at our house. He basically told my mom that he wants to get back together, and even though he already said he probably has to leave soon, my mom is totally falling for him again. I’m telling you; it’s awkward-city, USA at my house right now.”

“Wow,” Heather said in disbelief. “I don’t know what to say.”

I shook my head. “There’s nothing you can say. The whole thing is beyond words.”

We both nodded and went quiet.

Heather glanced at her lap for a moment, but finally broke the silence. “So, I feel kind of shallow for bringing this up right now,” she began, “because you’ve obviously had the craziest week ever, but I promised Nick I would say something.”

“That’s okay. What is it?” I asked.

“Well, you
do
realize that prom is in two weeks, right?”

My expression dropped. “Oh, right. Prom.”

“I guess Nick’s been trying to call Rayne all weekend, so the guys can plan the limo and everything, but he hasn’t been answering his phone.”

“Um, Heather, I don’t know how to tell you this, but I don’t think we’re going.”

“What do you
mean
?” Heather cried. “Please, please,
please
tell me you two aren’t on a break again. I swear I can’t keep up with your boy-drama these days.”

“No, that’s not it. We’re totally solid right now, better than ever. Well, sort of.”

Heather rolled her eyes. “What happened?”

Suddenly, I had to swallow back the tears. “We’re still together,” I pushed out. “But Rayne’s not here. It’s…a work thing. They sent him out of town. Like, out of the country. He might be gone for a while. I might not even be able to talk to him while he’s gone.”

Heather frowned with sympathy and reached out to offer a supportive hug. “That really sucks,” she said.

“What sucks?” came an offhand voice from behind.

“Oh, hey, Justin,” I said, wiping my cheeks discreetly.

Heather rolled her eyes at him. “It’s just girl-stuff; nothing that concerns you.”

Ariana followed in a second later. “Sadie!” she cheered. Her dark curls bounced as she scurried over to greet us. She stopped short, noticing my puffy eyes. “Oh no, what’s wrong? You didn’t break up with Rayne again, did you?”

“No, we didn’t break up,” I said quietly.

Ariana grabbed Justin’s arm, as if trying to balance herself. “Wait, someone died, didn’t they. I knew it. I knew that was why you were gone. Please tell me it wasn’t Rayne.”

Heather sighed impatiently. “Rayne is not dead.”

“You shouldn’t get our hopes up like that,” Justin joked under his breath.

Heather shoved his back and pushed him toward his desk. “That’s not even a little bit funny, Justin. Now everyone sit down and let Sadie have some space.”

Heather shot me a glance that said,
I am so sorry I brought this up during class
, then she nudged Ariana’s worried stare away from my face and back to her seat.

Even with the uncomfortable subjects that came up today, being at school was still better than being stuck at home with my parents. For me, it felt weird to even think the word
parents
. It was always just me and my mom—and then there was the totally distant idea of this guy who got her pregnant back in some other unknown dimension of time. A guy who had nothing to do with us and didn’t even know I existed. The world looked so different all of a sudden. Within a couple of weeks, I had been shot twice, gained a father, lost a boyfriend to prison, saved my mother’s life with a magical crystal, and discovered life on other planets. Needless to say, I felt like an entirely different person.

By the time we left class to go to lunch, I was back in control of my emotions again. It felt good to sit outside and feel the sun’s warmth surround me. I practically forgot that Orion’s agents were secretly stationed all over the place. I never saw any signs of them the entire day.

Heather started getting protective of me again when some of my friends brought up the subject of prom while we ate, but I assured her that it didn’t bother me anymore. I missed Rayne like crazy, but I still wanted my friends to have the opportunity to feel excited about it. Just because my plans weren’t working out didn’t mean I couldn’t be happy for everyone else. The more I thought about it, the less important a high school dance seemed to be. And yes, senior prom wasn’t just any high school dance; it was
the
high school dance, but it seemed trivial compared to all the things I had recently learned and experienced. If Rayne were here, we would definitely go and have a wonderful time, but he wasn’t here, so it was better not to care about a silly thing like a dance.

“If Rayne can’t go then you could probably go with Brandon,” Nicole offered. “I’m pretty sure we’re not getting back together, and I’d rather see him go with you than some other lame girl that none of us want to hang out with.” We could all hear the bitter insecurity in her tone. It was obviously more of a cry for help than a sincere suggestion.

“Brandon’s going to ask you,” Lindsey insisted to her. “He was talking to me and Zach about you just yesterday.”

“But everyone’s already making plans,” Nicole complained. “If he really wants to go with me, then what’s taking so long? I don’t want to end up going alone.”

“You won’t,” Lindsey promised. “I think he’s just nervous because you guys broke-up and everything. He totally wants to get back together with you.”

Nicole’s eyes lit up. “Really?” Then she shot a glance in my direction. “Well, if Brandon’s really gonna ask me to the dance, then who’s Sadie gonna go with?” Everyone turned to stare at me.

I shrugged. “I’m just not going to go. It’s not a big deal.”

“No, you have to go,” Nicole pouted. “It’s senior prom.”

“What about Trent Freeman?” Julie chimed in hopefully.

“He can’t,” Heather said, hesitating, “he already asked Sarah Bergman.” My friends all groaned in reply.

I stood from the table, forcing a smile, trying to sound as casual as possible. “Don’t worry, you guys. It’s not a big deal. I’ll just meet everyone at the after party or something.” Then I left before anyone could protest.

I rushed quickly around the corner of the nearest building. Once my friends were out of sight, my pace slowed and my thoughts took over.
It’s just a dance
, I told myself again.
It’s not a big deal
.