Keeper Page 9

  Chapter 8

  I hadn’t realized how deep into the forest I actually walked yesterday. As I followed the same path, it was hard to believe. I kept thinking we’d passed it, but apparently Aiden had a GPS installed in his brain and knew exactly where we were going.

  The sun shone through the trees, peeking through the branches, casting its warm beams on the frost-covered plant life. With every step I took, leaves and twigs crackled beneath my feet. They littered the ground, congregating around fallen tree trunks and surrounding foliage, camouflaging the land in orange and yellow. Back when I actually liked the woods, I would’ve thought it pretty. Today, all I saw were dead, withering leaves.

  Aiden weaved through the trees about ten yards away. He took long strides, his features masked in the hard warrior face he wore twenty-four seven, while his eyes constantly swept the area. Did he ever smile? Not like I cared, but still, I was curious. I bet the guy didn’t have a fun bone in his body.

  Not that I’d know. The only things I knew about him were his gift, he liked to read and he was some sort of badass ninja who had no problem protecting me.

  Still, the silence was killing me. “Okay, so, if I start screaming and throwing myself into the dirt like a crazy mofo, what then?” I flinched when my voice disturbed our quiet surroundings, sending a flurry of birds in the air.

  Aiden pushed back a tree branch and ducked under it. “Then we try again tomorrow.” He stopped and gestured around the section of the forest. “This is it.”

  I took in the tall, skeletal trees. This couldn’t be. The forest looked completely different. The tree had been full of green leaves, maybe even a bit taller. I stepped over a fallen log and weaved through the dead vegetation. The boulder the girl stood against came into view. I picked up my pace, practically stumbling as I went, and crouched in front of it. Aiden was right. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. I smoothed my hand over the rock that stood easily as tall as Aiden and breathed a sigh of relief. Maybe we still had a chance to find the girl and figure out who the Kember was.

  When I turned to face him, the same girl with dark eyes and black hair flashed in my mind, making me wince. She smiled. All traces of her panicked and fearful expression were gone. My heart thudded in my chest. What was wrong with me? I squeezed my eyes closed, trying to rid her from my mind, but everything except her disappeared. I started to lose my balance.

  Aiden grabbed my arms before I collapsed and held me in place. “What’s going on?”

  I blinked until the picture cleared, allowing me to see him.

  “Can you hear me?” He looked straight into my eyes, as if trying to see what I saw. I stared back at him, hypnotized by two of the most dazzling emeralds. My chest tightened. I’d never noticed how green they were.

  Immediately, Aiden released me and I stumbled back a few steps. He glanced at his hands, hardness masking any of the earlier concern. “What happened?”

  I drew in a deep breath and shook my head, snapping myself out of…whatever the hell that was. “I saw her,” I whispered. “It’s like she took over my entire vision. I couldn’t see anything else.” It scared me, too, but I didn’t want to tell him that.

  “What was she doing?”

  I pressed my palms together and twisted them. My gaze shifted out toward the dead trees, unable to meet his. “Uh…smiling.”

  “Can you tell me what she looks like?”

  Aiden’s features gave none of his thoughts away. Maybe he believed me. Or, possibly, he was gathering evidence of insanity for Ian. Hesitating, I tapped the side of my leg before pulling a piece of paper from my pocket: a sketch of the girl. I handed it to him.

  A line creased between his brows. “Where did you get this?”

  I sighed. “I couldn’t fall back asleep this morning…I was bored.”

  He studied the paper with something that looked a little like astonishment, but I couldn’t be sure. “You drew this?”

  “Sarcasm isn’t my only talent.”

  Aiden folded the paper up and handed it back to me. “With this, she shouldn’t be too hard to find.”

  “You really think she lives around here?”

  “You saw her running through these woods. It only makes sense.” He tucked his hands into his pockets, leaned against a tree and waited silently as I studied the forest.

  Nothing odd had happened here; well, except me throwing myself around in the dirt. Maybe I was crazy. No. I refused to believe that. I was positive I hadn’t overlooked a single thing. “Let’s go to those houses now.”

  He pushed away from the trunk and silently followed. When we reached our house, we climbed in the truck and once again depended on Aiden’s innate sense of direction to get us where we needed to be.

  It didn’t take us long to find out no one lived in the first home. A big red “for sale” sign stood in the overgrown grass and a window in the front revealed lack of furniture and life.

  Aiden straightened in his seat and motioned toward the little yellow house. “No one lives here.”

  I rolled my eyes. “Thank you, Captain Obvious.”

  He switched the gear into drive and peeled out of the driveway.

  I kept waiting for the truck to gain its usual illegal speed and blur out our surroundings. It didn’t. I figured it had something to do with the winding, dirt roads and cliffs. I should be grateful. It was just that something about the world rushing by helped me feel alive. Slumping back, I pulled my knees to my chest. “Are we there yet?”

  He pointed off into the distance. “See the little log cabin?”

  I strained my eyes. “All I see are big, fat trees.”

  “Give it a moment. You’ll see.”

  “Does it get annoying?” The words slipped out before I even knew they were coming. I pursed my lips, hoping he wasn’t getting the impression of small talk.

  He glanced at me and, for a second, I could’ve sworn he looked a little taken aback. “Does what?”

  “Uh, your gift.”

  Aiden righted a strand of hair from his eyes with a quick shake of his head. His hesitance made me think he didn’t talk—especially about himself—much. “No. It’s saved my life on numerous occasions.”

  “I just figured it may be a little weird…”

  “I was born with it. I’ve never known anything different.”

  Not only did I wish I would’ve been born a Kember—so I could kick major ass—their gifts were a lot easier to adapt to. Sure some Kembers would accidentally light things on fire, but after a few short weeks they gained complete control of their physical energy. My mental gift took me years to nail. Sometimes I still had problems with it. “See. I didn’t know that. I woke up one morning and could control minds. I wasn’t sure how it worked with anyone else.”

  “I think most Dreas’ abilities surface like yours did.”

  As far as I knew, they did. The first time mine emerged, I was in class getting lectured by this prick teacher. The next thing I knew, he was blurting every profanity I thought. I passed out, and he got fired. After that, it took weeks before I could start to even recognize the hum of my ability. Skyler and a few of my other friends all went through the same thing. All around the time of puberty. After a couple years, when a Drea’s gift is fully developed and accessible, the Authority assigns a Kember.

  Of course, I was the exception to this. The Authority felt the need for a Kember to raise me. No one knew when a Drea’s gift would first surface or how. Sometimes it came in the heat of rage, danger or frustration. The Authority discovered negative events usually spiked mental energies.

  My eyes burned thinking back to those simpler, better, times.

  The truck slowed and a little log…cabin? Was that the word Aiden used? How could he call this a cabin? To me, the place resembled more of a boarded-up shack; a place where crazy hermits lived. Broken down vehicles, and what looked like some of their parts, lay scattered across the weeds and dead grass. Animal carcasses and skins—which
I didn’t dare try to put a name to—hung from the trees.

  Creepy. It reminded me of a movie Skyler and I watched a few months back about some hillbillies who hunted people because they were bored with animals. I shuddered and glanced around. No power tools hung anywhere; then again, the forest was dense—how psychos liked it.

  Aiden stared a moment before he put the truck in park and cut the ignition. “Let me do all the talking.”

  “Aye, aye, Captain.” Shoving the door open, I jumped down from the huge truck and walked around to the front, meeting Aiden.

  Two shaggy masses of fur came sprinting toward us, howling like sick seals. Before I could even start to panic, a grizzled toothpick of a man emerged from behind a tree, yelling profanities and zipping up the fly on his pants. The dogs—as I took them to be—dropped to the ground whimpering.

  “What dun brung ya to my neck of the woods?” The man ran a hand through his greasy brown mullet.

  Oh. My. Hell.

  Aiden remained completely expressionless. “We’re trying to find someone.”

  Oh no—please no! This deranged mountain man couldn’t be the source of help Aiden and I were in search of.

  “I’d be happy tuh help. I’m Herman Vale.” The mountain man extended his hand.

  Aiden’s hesitation was barely enough for me to notice as he stepped forward and took it. “Aiden Oltman.”

  Herman smiled, showing all six of his yellowed teeth. “Well, good tuh meecha.” He turned his wide, grey eyes on me, moving them up and down my figure. “An’ who mightya be?”

  I crossed my arms over my chest and opened my mouth to say “take a cold shower” when Aiden spoke. “This is Taylee.”

  My eyes narrowed. Apparently, when he said no speaking, he meant it.

  Herman took a few steps forward and held a dirty hand out to me. “A pleasure.”

  I stared at his long, thick fingernails, picturing them cutting into my flesh and giving me some kind of rabid mountain man disease. I almost gagged. For all I knew, it could’ve been the one he just used to go to the bathroom. Yeah, I’m pretty sure I’d rather die.

  Herman dropped his hand and chuckled. “That’s all right iffin yur shy.” He turned back to Aiden. “Who can I help ya find?”

  Aiden reached toward me. “The drawing.”

  I scowled and gave it to him. Herman took a few steps and stood at Aiden’s side.

  Aiden watched the mountain man study the sketch, looking like he might decapitate him—or worse—if the man made the slightest wrong move.

  Cringing, I wondered how he could stand that close to the man. I smelled the mixture of raw meat and BO from here.

  Herman smoothed down his red and black flannel shirt and shook his head. “Never seen ’er.”

  Aiden scrutinized him. “Never?”

  Herman stroked his beard and took another peek. “Nope. An’ I know evuryone ’round here.”

  I didn’t dare look at Aiden. I wasn’t crazy. This chick had to be real.

  “Also,” Aiden hesitated. “There’s this man. He wears a long black cloak—”

  “He’s about as tall as Aiden and works with a few Ry—” I covered my slip quickly. “Guys with tattoos on their faces…” Rygons weren’t exactly dinner-table-talk to the Norms. Neither were Kembers and Dreas. The Authority highly discouraged them knowing about us. I guess they thought we’d become a mad scientist’s next victim or something.

  The color drained from Herman’s face. His eyes flitted across the property, like he feared someone listening.

  Aiden glanced around, too. “You know him?”

  Herman didn’t respond right away. “W-we best talk ‘bout this inside,” he whispered and motioned them to follow him.