Chapter 14: Up and Up
"You guys ok back there?" Rose asked, breaking the silence. None of us had said a word since we'd crossed the Virginia state line almost half an hour ago.
"We're doing just peachy keen," Adrian said, grandly and falsely. I was leaning against him in the back seat of the car, and when he spoke, I felt his rib cage vibrate against my back. "How are you up there, little Belikova?" he asked.
"Ready to kick ass is how I am," Rose said. "God, when I think about how... Well, you know." She let out a sort of growling noise. "What about you, Sydney? You 'k?"
"I just want it to be over," I said, faintly. "One way or another. I want it to be tomorrow."
"Me too," Adrian said, stroking my arm. "Tomorrow is going to be awesome. I have plans with a really hot girl and these two really cute kids."
"Oh god," I said. "That was supposed to be this weekend. Our trip to DC. I had actually forgotten."
"I hadn't," Adrian said. "And as far as I know, it's still happening. We just hit a little snag and have to rescue the girls from a gang of dimwitted hired thugs. Easy-peasy."
"Sure," I said. "Easy-peasy."
"You know," Adrian said. "This was supposed to be a surprise, but I think I'll tell you now – I have an appointment booked for us to tour the White House tomorrow afternoon."
"Really?" I said. "The girls would have loved that. Violet especially."
"Correction – they are going to love it," Adrian said firmly.
"Yeah," I said. "They're going to be in heaven." But then the double meaning of what I'd just said hit me full in the face and I felt tears flood my eyes.
"Heaven on earth," Adrian corrected, quickly. "Hey, come on, sweetheart. We agreed we'd stay positive. I mean, our new idiot friend, Chicken Pockets, said that the girls were fine when he left, right?" I nodded. "And didn't he say that all the other idiots were all under strict orders not to hurt the girls?" I nodded again. "So there you go," Adrian said. "It's ok. They're fine."
I nodded once more, made myself take a few deep breaths, then asked Rose, "Are we almost there?"
"Almost," she said. "I'm driving as fast as I can on these awful roads. If Josh's directions are right, we're only about five or ten minutes away, I think."
"I have never met anyone so easy to compel as Chicken Pockets," Adrian said, shaking his head. "He must be as dumb as a stump."
"Explains his chosen profession," Rose said. "Witness intimidation doesn't require much in the way of skills or talent."
"The smartest thing that guy ever did was run off," Adrian said.
"Possibly the only smart thing he ever did," I said.
The guy in the red coat – his name was Josh, though I preferred Adrian's nickname, Chicken Pockets – had explained to us that he'd been hired, with four other guys, to kidnap Amy and Violet. At first, it had seemed like easy money to Josh. He was good at making threats, he said, since he'd done it before as a "profession." Besides, he told us, he wasn't afraid of two little girls. But after he'd had some time to think about the kidnapping, he realized that he'd actually brought Violet and Amy across state lines, a federal crime. That, coupled with the low pay he'd been offered and the fact that the 'hideout' he'd been told to wait in gave him the creeps, had made him rethink the whole thing. Telling the other guys that he was going out for some cigarettes, he'd made a break for it. When we'd caught up to him at Fat Bobby's roadhouse, he had been on his way to Raleigh, where he knew someone who worked at a chop-shop. Josh was planning to take the gray sedan – a car he'd been lent for the duration of the kidnapping – to his friend, get whatever cash he could for it, and run off to Mexico for a while. Of course, he hadn't been planning on meeting up with us, nor had he been planning on ending up unconscious and bound in the cargo hatch of an SUV driven by a 6'7 dhampir. So few people do plan for things like that.
"Hey," Adrian said, with what I knew was a bit of forced cheerfulness. "Did I tell you about the hotel suite I reserved for the weekend?"
"Adrian," I said, miserably. "Let's not talk about that any more."
"I want to talk about it," Adrian said. "We should talk about it, since it's where we're going after this, once we get the girls back."
I drew in a slow breath. "Tell me," I said.
"It's the best suite in the hotel. Top floor. It's got a huge living room area with a fireplace, and then two bedrooms, each with two king size beds. The girls can stay in one room, and they'll get their own bathroom and everything. You and I get the other room." He leaned around me to kiss my cheek. "We don't really need two beds, of course, but I guess it could be handy in case we break one of them..."
Against all sense, I found myself smiling. "I'm sure," I said. How did Adrian do that – make me smile even when I'd been just about to cry?
"And there's a jacuzzi in our room, too," Adrian said. "So be sure not to bring a bathing suit."
"Ok, ew," said Rose, from the front seat. "Please, guys. Can you not talk about that kind of thing in front of me?"
"You're just jealous," Adrian said.
"Tell my husband how jealous I am," Rose said tartly.
"You tell him," Adrian said. "He's about half a foot taller than me. I'm not stupid." They both laughed, and I got the feeling that this was well-trod conversational ground for them. They had clearly gotten pretty comfortable with each other over the years, and had more or less gotten over the hurts caused by their short, doomed relationship. It was nice to see.
"Do you guys think this is it?" Rose asked, pausing by a turnoff for something that was either a rural dirt road or a very long driveway. We all peered down the road, but very little of it was visible in the moonlight, at least, not to me. Behind us, Dimitri's car paused too, and I had to guess that his group was having pretty much the same conversation as we were.
"There's a house about a mile or so up the road, at the top of a little hill," Adrian said, squinting a little. "And it looks pretty much like what Chicken Pockets described."
"Ok great," said Rose, and opened her window to give Dimitri a hand signal that seemed to mean "turn left." Both cars made the turn, and I felt all my muscles clench as I realized how close we now were to finding Amy and Violet.
Our SUVs bumped along the dirt road, and I had to sit up properly to keep from falling off the seat. Then Rose turned off the headlights, as did Dimitri in his car, and we both began driving in the dark. Rose's nightvision was sufficient to light the way for her, especially in the bright moonlight, but still, it was a nerve-wracking ride. Finally, Rose edged the car to a stop, and Dimitri parked as well.
We all got out of the car, moving as quietly as possible, and got into a circle to confer. The temperature had dropped a good five or ten degrees in the past hour, and I jammed my hands into my pockets to keep them warm.
"I think that Rose and I should go to the front door," Dimitri said. His Russian accent was still audible, despite the passage of ten years. "We'll knock and get their attention. Meanwhile, Eddie and Mikhail will sneak around to the back, either to a door or a window. While Rose and I deal with the four human criminals, Eddie and Mikhail will find the children and bring them outside to safety."
"May I encourage non-lethal methods, where possible?" Sonya put in, surprising me a little. I hadn't even noticed her standing there until that moment.
"Of course," Mikhail said, and everyone nodded.
"And what will Adrian and I be doing during all of this?" I asked.
Dimitri met my eye, then said, in Russian, "You'll wait outside, where it is safe, my friend."
"That's what you think," I answered, also in Russian. Next to me, Adrian let out a little laugh. He had no idea what I had said, of course, but he probably just appreciated that I was sass-mouthing the intimidating dhampir in his native language.
"Let me guess," Rose said. "Sydney wants to come in with us."
"Of course she does," Eddie said. "She's their mother. I say we let her come with us."
"No way," Rose said.
"She's the one who found the guy at the roadhouse," Eddie said.
"But these men could have guns," Dimitri said. "This is Guardian work." Then he added, in Russian, "I promise you, Sydney, that I will protect your children as if they were mine."
"English, please," Rose said, in a singsong voice.
"The guys could have guns," Mikhail said, responding to Dimitri's earlier comment. "Sydney, I respect you a great deal, but I think you'll be safer out here."
"Look," Adrian said. "It's cold out here and I'm sick of arguing. You four can go rescue the girls while we helpless non-dhampirs wait outside, ok?"
Rose and Dimitri eyed him warily. Eddie caught my eye and smiled, and I pressed my lips together to keep from smiling back.
"There," Mikhail said, pleasantly. "It's settled. We'll be out again before you know it, Sydney and Adrian."
Rose paused, eyes narrowed. "Stay here, Adrian," she said.
Adrian held up one hand as if it were a paw and stuck out hi tongue. "Woof! Woof!" he said.
Rose rolled her eyes. "That goes for you, too, Sydney," she said and I nodded obediently.
Then Mikhail gave Sonya a quick kiss and the four Guardians began walking down the road up the hill, towards the house. Now that my eyes had gotten used to the dark, I could see the house pretty clearly. It looked a little like the stereotypical haunted house from a horror movie, and I shuddered to think what it might look like on the inside. I could smell the smoke from a fire in the fireplace, but there didn't seem to be any lights on, so I wondered if there was any electricity, heat, or plumbing.
Once the dhampirs had gotten a short distance up the road, Sonya asked, "How long are you going to wait until you follow them?"
"I figure about five minutes," Adrian said. "What do you think, sweetheart?"
"Sounds good," I said.
Sonya nodded. "Fair enough," she said.
"Just let me get something," I said, and went back into the car to dig through the duffel bag I'd brought. I found a flashlight and some lock busting compound and slipped them both into my pockets. When I came back, Sonya was bending over and dipping her hands into a muddy looking puddle. As Adrian and I watched, puzzled, she straightened up again, her cupped hands now full of water. Then, to my surprise, the water in her hand began to change shape slowly.
"I've been working on my sub-specialization," she explained. "It's water obviously. It's difficult, but I find it therapeutic."
"Using fire helps me relax in a weird way too, sometimes," Adrian said. "It's funny how that works."
We both watched as the water in Sonya's hand turned into the familiar shape of a lily. She held it out to me and asked, "What happened to your lily, Sydney?" Then the flower dissolved and dribbled down to the ground again, and Sonya wiped her hands on her coat.
"I left the alchemists," I said. "If you don't keep touching up those tattoos, they fade."
"The tattoos are meant to protect you, right?" she asked.
"They speed healing, mainly," I said. "And they keep people from getting sick."
She peered at me thoughtfully. "But I feel as though you are still protected," she said. "Somehow, you are. I'm certain."
"Power of love," Adrian said, putting his arm around me. It was cold out, and his warm body against me was even more welcome than usual.
Sonya smiled. "You guys make a nice couple," she said. "It's not normal, of course, but what is, these days?"
"It doesn't... you know... gross you out?" I asked.
"No," she said. "I don't see why other people's love lives are my concern. I think love is love, and love is beautiful."
"Thanks," I said. "It's nice to know someone supports us."
"I fear that many Moroi would not," Sonya said. "Especially stodgy royal types." Her eyes widened a little and she added, "No offense, Adrian."
"None taken," Adrian said. "I might be royal, but I'm not stodgy. My parents are, though. My mother the jail-bird doesn't have a leg to stand on, propriety-wise, if you ask me. But I'm sure that my dad would do the yelling for the both of them." He rolled his eyes.
"At least your dad wouldn't have you kidnapped and brainwashed," I said.
"Probably not," Adrian said.
"Would your father really do that to you, Sydney?" Sonya asked.
"It's possible," I said. "When the girls first went missing, I actually thought it was his doing."
"How did you rule him out as a suspect?"
"I called him and he didn't seem to know anything about it," I said. "He just invited me for a visit."
"Are you going to go?" Sonya asked.
I narrowed my eyes. "Are you crazy?" I asked. For some reason, Sonya flinched at the question, but I went on. "Now that it's looking pretty sure that I'll be getting divorce, I'll be even more of a black sheep in the family. If my father knew about Adrian, or the truth about Amy, he'd disown us all, or ship us off for re-education."
"People change as they get older," Sonya said. "He might be different now than what you expect, or what he used to be."
"I'm not holding my breath," I said.
"That's wise," Sonya answered, calmly. "You'll need it for what you're about to do." She paused. "Are you going to be able to see ok, Sydney? It must be pretty dark out here for you."
"I have a flashlight," I said.
"I can always guide you if you can't see," Adrian said, squeezing me to him.
"When I was Strigoi, the night seemed as bright as day," Sonya mused, and a chill ran through me. "Of course," she added, "there was no joy to the night or the day. There was no joy at all." She gave me a bright smile. "Now there's happiness all the time. I owe you and Rose so much for what you did for me."
"I didn't do so much," I said. "I just sort of... hid behind a couch."
"You stayed with me for a while after the change," Sonya said. "I never forgot your kindness."
"Um, thanks," I said. "I'm glad I could help." I looked over at Adrian helplessly.
"I guess it's been five minutes," Sonya said. "Go on, you two. Save your daughters."
"Oh, thanks," I said. "I guess we'll see you shortly."
"Yes," she said. "Good luck."
We said a quick goodbye, and then Adrian and I set off up the hill. He offered me his hand to hold, and it wasn't just a romantic gesture on his part – I needed his guidance along the dark path. If it weren't for the moonlight, I would have needed him to actually carry me. It was too bad that I couldn't use the flashlight without worry that the light would be seen by one of the gang.
After we had walked for about a minute, Adrian suddenly stopped in his tracks. "I just heard a gun go off," he said.
"Oh, God," I whispered, my mind suddenly full of images of my friends covered in blood.
"We have to remember that all those dhampirs are professional Guardians," Adrian said, in a slightly nervous tone. "No way they're getting taken down by some incredibly stupid humans."
"Hey, don't knock humans," I said, lightly.
"I wouldn't dare," Adrian said. "Two of my favorite people are humans." He squeezed my hand. "Are you ok to keep going?"
"Yes," I said. "Are you?"
"Try and stop me," he said, and we began walking again.
We were approaching the house on its right side, and as we got closer and closer, I studied it, trying to imagine what it was like on the inside. It was three stories tall, and must have once been a grand house, but that was long ago now. Several of the windows were broken, and the paint was peeling off in chunks. I began to feel sort of sorry for the house, now that I could see it more clearly. The world had moved on and left this house behind.
"Wow," Adrian whispered. "I may have to paint this place someday."
"Maybe we can come back here with the girls someday and you can paint a family portrait," I said, not even sure whether I was joking.
"I won't need to come back," Adrian said. "I don't think I'll ever forget how it looks."
"Me either," I said. In the silence that followed, I could hear shouts coming from the house. Adrian and I paused to listen, and then Adrian pulled me close to him to whisper, "I hear Rose and Dimitri, and two unfamiliar male voices. But I see at least five auras in there, maybe six... It's hard to separate them."
I made a mental note to ask him when he'd learned to see auras through walls, then whispered, "What are they saying?"
"Arguing," Adrian said. "Rose is saying, 'Surrender, we have you surrounded,' stuff like that. The guys are saying, 'No way, we're going to shoot our way out,' stuff like that."
"What about the girls?"
Adrian stared into the distance as he listened. "No one's talking about them," he whispered, finally. Then we looked at each other, nodded, and continued walking forward.
Now we were walking through weeds so tall that it felt like we were wading through water. We kept out of the sight line of the one large window, and when we reached the house finally we paused once more. I let Adrian draw me very near so he could whisper right into my ear. "I hear Eddie and Mikhail talking in the backyard," he whispered. "They already searched the house and didn't find the girls."
My stomach churned, but I forced myself to stay as calm as possible. "What are they doing now, then?"
"Arguing with one of the guys, trying to find out where the girls are," he answered. "Rose and Dimitri are still in their standoff inside." I nodded – I could hear them now, too, exchanging threats with the goons. "So, what do you think we should do, sweetheart?" Adrian asked.
"We either try to help Rose and Dimitri with their standoff," I answered, "or go inside and search again for the girls."
"I vote the latter," Adrian whispered. "The Belikovs will be fine. And I have better senses than dhampirs. I'll be able to sense things that they miss."
I had been hoping he'd choose that option, but I kept my face neutral. "We can go in right through the front door at this point," I said, as quietly as I could. "I don't think anyone will notice us in the middle of their drama."
Adrian nodded and offered me his arm, and we waded through the weeds around the left corner of the house, along a short path, and then to the front door of the house. The door was hanging pathetically from one edge, like a loose tooth one day from falling out. Adrian and I held hands and stepped through the doorway.
It was almost completely dark inside, except for the fitful moonlight which came in through a few small windows. The air smelled of dust and woodsmoke. The shouting was continuing from somewhere to our right, and Adrian took my hand and began guiding me to the left. He leaned close and whispered, "stairs," and I nodded, knowing he could see me. I took another few small steps forward through the darkness, and then Adrian lifted my hand and placed it on what turned out to be a railing. Slowly, I began climbing the stairs, hoping that the wood beneath my feet wouldn't give way.
Up we climbed, up and up. Once, one of the stairs let out a huge "creeeeaak" and we both froze for a few moments, fearing that someone would come to investigate – though of course, that was pretty unlikely, given as how the others were in the middle of a Wild-West style standoff in the living room. When we were sure that no one was coming, we began moving again, placing our feet lightly, hoping to avoid any more loud noises.
It seemed to take forever to climb that narrow, dark staircase. But finally we emerged on the second floor, where a big window let in a lot of moonlight. Adrian murmured, "There's no scent of them here, at all. Let's go up another floor." I agreed, and let him guide me through the dim hallway to another set of stairs, which we began to climb.
This was even narrower than the previous staircase, and the stairs were further apart. Climbing it in the near total darkness would have been terrifying without Adrian, and even with him, it was hard. I promised myself that I could freak out when this whole thing was over, and kept moving, up and up and up.
We had gone only about halfway up the stairs when Adrian gripped my arm, pulling me to a stop.
"What is it?" I whispered.
He gave no immediate reply, and I figured that he was listening to something that I couldn't hear. After a long moment, he said, "One of those idiots just threw a log from the fireplace at Dimitri, and one of the curtains caught on fire."
"Oh my God," I whispered, and then we began running up the stairs, no longer concerned about the sound of our feet on the stairs, or anything else but finding Violet and Amy as fast as we could.
We emerged from the staircase to find ourselves in a very small landing area, lit by the moonlight coming in through two large windows. There were two doors here, one on each side of the landing, and both of them had been torn off their hinges. We immediately began looking around wildly for any sign of the girls.
"They were here, at least," he said, with quiet intensity. "I can smell them... This is driving me crazy." He ran into one of the rooms, which was almost empty except for a dingy mattress and an old crocheted blanket. Adrian picked it up and sniffed it. "They were here for sure," he whispered. Then he went over to the doorway and got to his knees. "There's a little of Violet and Amy's blood here," he said, his fingers running over the ground.
"Oh, God," I said. "Oh, God. Please." I took a few short, hysterical breaths, then asked Adrian, "Where else did you smell them?"
I could almost feel his effort as he pulled himself together. "The scent was strong in the hallway, too," he said. "But not on the stairs."
"So what does that mean?" I asked, my voice rising in pitch with every syllable.
"I don't know," he said, in a strained voice. "But let's go back out into the hall."
I nodded, and we left the room and the dingy mattress behind. Back in the hall, I again began to shine my flashlight around, until Adrian put his hand on my arm and whispered, "Hold on. Let me see something."
I didn't stop to ask why. I just turned the flashlight off and waited to see what Adrian would do next. In the moonlight, I saw him look everywhere around the room – the walls, the floors, and then the ceiling. That was when he let out a yelp of surprise.
"They're in the ceiling," he said, clutching my arm. "I see their auras."
"They're alive," I said, in a weird, high pitched voice.
"Yes," he said, smiling. "They're alive. And there's something in the ceiling..."
I turned my flashlight on and shined it at the area of the ceiling that Adrian pointed out, and we both saw it: a rectangular hatch that must lead to an attic or storage space. Hanging down from the middle of the hatch was a short string.
"Girls," I called, not caring if anyone else heard me. "Amy, Violet, it's Mommy. Are you there?" But there was no answer.
With an expectant look on his face, Adrian pulled the string, but the hatch didn't budge. "I think it's locked," he said.
"Ok, easy peasy," I said, feeling oddly disembodied. I dragged a small wooden chair from the corner of the hall to the spot right under the door. "Stand on that," I ordered Adrian, and he did as I asked without question. "Can you reach the lock?" I asked.
"I think so," he said, stretching a little.
"Then take some of this stuff," I said, and pulled a small bottle from my pocket. "It's lock buster."
I gave him instructions on how to apply the compound, and then we watched as the metal dissolved and fell out of the hatch and onto the floor. Once the bubbling on the wood had stopped, he pulled the string again. This time, the hatch opened easily. As it did, a small wooden ladder descended to allow access.
I climbed the ladder with my heart in my throat, then turned on my flashlight and shined it around. I was in a small dusty attic, not much bigger than the cabin of an American sedan. The ceilings were so low that I couldn't even stand up fully, and there were no windows. But in the midst of this ugliness there were the two most beautiful things in the world: Amy and Violet.
Amy was closer to me, and I rolled her onto her back, trying to shake her awake. "Baby?" I called. "Amy?"
Adrian was up right behind me, and seeing me with Amy, crawled over to Violet and gently tried to wake her, too. But almost immediately he let out a started yell.
"What?" I asked.
"Her arm is broken," he said, in a voice that was somewhere between a whisper and a growl.
"Oh God oh God oh God," I said, and began to gently touch Amy's arms and legs, feeling for breaks. "Can you fix it, Adrian, please?"
"Bones are tricky," Adrian said. "I don't want to rush it and mess it up."
I knew he was right. There was a fire spreading through this house – we didn't have time for broken arms. "Ok, ok, let's just get them out of here," I said. "You can heal them in the car."
"My thoughts exactly," Adrian said. "Is Amy ok?"
I had finished my quick examination of Amy, and thankfully, though she had a few small bruises and scrapes, she had no broken bones that I could feel. "I think so," I said. "Let's move."
I went back down the ladder, then let Adrian slowly lower first Amy, then Violet, down into my arms. Unfortunately, as I was just getting Violet to the floor, she began to wake up. She began to cry almost immediately, and I hugged her as best I could without bumping into her injured arm.
"Baby," I said. "It's Mommy. I'm here to take you home."
"Mommy," she cried, in a sleepy voice. "My arm hurts so much."
"I know," I said. "I know. We're going to fix it really soon, ok? We'll fix it so it won't hurt."
Adrian practically jumped out of the hatch in his hurry to get down to the ground. He stumbled over and knelt down by my side.
"Hi, Miss Purple," he said, stroking Violet's cheek. "Look at me, ok?"
"H-h-h-hi M-m-mister Adr-i-i-ian," she sobbed, and turned her head to meet his eyes.
"It doesn't hurt, right?" he said, and immediately her body relaxed.
"No, it doesn't," she said, sounding slightly surprised.
"Ok, good," he said, and scooped her up into his arms. To me, he added, "Temp fix. Can you carry Amy? I'll want to keep Violet near me..."
"I can carry Amy," I said, and with a bit of effort, picked her up.
"Is Amy ok?" Violet asked me, as Adrian turned towards the stairs back down.
"She's fine, she's just sleeping," I said, and then almost bumped into Adrian, who had stopped at the top of the stairs.
"The fire's up to the second floor," he said. "I can feel it. It's weird. Fire sense..."
"So we can't go downstairs?" I asked.
"No," he said. "We wouldn't make it to the next staircase down to the ground floor."
My strength deserted me and I let Amy down to the ground again. "But... we can't stay here," I murmured. I heard Violet let out a little sob.
"I know we can't," Adrian said. "But the second floor isn't safe."
"So... now what?" I whispered, wrapping my arms around my sleeping daughter protectively, though of course there was no way I could protect her from a fire.
"We'll think of something," Adrian said, as a wave of heat came up towards us from the stairs.
A few Author's Notes:
1. I know, I know, a cliff-hanger... sorry 'bout it. But it was post this now, or wait and post a 20,000 word chapter a lot later, so I figured you guys might like an update now instead! :)
2. For my non-US readers, some of you might use a different system for numbering floors/storeys in a building than we do in the US. In the US, the ground floor is also called the first floor, and then you walk up one flight of stairs to the second floor. I know that in many other countries, you enter on the ground floor, and the "first floor" is what we in the US would call the "second floor." So Sydney and co. are trapped on the US "third floor" right now, which would probably be called the "second floor" in many other countries.
3. I had the whole fire thing plotted out before I remembered a picture I'd seen from that video trailer they made for TIS, the one that suggests that some sort of fire happens in TIS. So I'm sorry if this is too similar to TIS (though I haven't read it, so maybe it isn't). Also, maybe the conversation between Sydney and Sonya in this chapter might go over some of the same ground from TGL, since I know Sonya is in TGL a bit and maybe they talk at some point (though as you guys know I haven't read TGL either). I guess I might just have to give in and read TGL and TIS since I think I could still write Door in the Tree even knowing what's canon now. I guess if I haven't finished Door in the Tree by the time FH comes out I'll read TGL at least.
4. Writing action sequences is SO difficult for me. But I'm doing my best. AND I'm off of my antibiotics as of yesterday! So fingers crossed I get the next update up by Monday or Tuesday. My revised estimate for total number of chapters is 21.