House of Royale (Secret Keepers #4)(56)
No one said another word. I was starting to see the cracks in Laous now. Up close, his eyes were feverish, his face flushed with a manic sort of look. Like a junkie coming off a high, or ready for the next one.
“Are you ready?” he gasped, clenching and unclenching his hands.
We all nodded. Chase and Lexen turned and bowed to their parents. Xander was still angry with his mother apparently and spared her no more than a single glance. She looked pained by the way he was leaving, but there was nothing I could do to fix the situation she’d caused. I still had sympathy for her though; he was her son, and she no doubt believed she was doing the right thing for him.
As we moved forward, sticking close as a group, Laous fell into step beside us. The Gonzo parted for us to move through them. Rao, and a man and woman, remained on either side of Laous—the Daelighters or humans he was bringing along.
Callie seemed to know at least one of them. She growled in the direction of the chick. “Worn anyone’s skin lately, bitch?”
Daelighter then. The bitch grinned and said, “It took me weeks to get the stench of your dead mother off me. Humans are truly disgusting.”
Callie lunged forward, Lexen and Daniel both catching her before she could land a blow. “You better watch your back,” she yelled, “because I’m going to fucking kill you the first chance I get.” Callie growled, flames springing up across her arms.
I was surprised when Lexen didn’t let her go, even as the fire licked across his hands. Apparently he always rocked the dragon thing, even when he no longer looked like one.
Even though Callie calmed herself quickly, she didn’t stop shooting death glares at the chick, who appeared completely unconcerned, turning her back on us and striding ahead. Two black SUVs screeched to a halt on the main road, just outside the huge gates of Daelight Crescent. Laous got into the second SUV with his people, and Lexen strode across to the front vehicle, yanking the driver right out of the seat and tossing him about ten feet away.
The man didn’t get up, and none of us bothered to care as we piled into the car. Eight people did not fit that easily, but we made it work.
Xander, who was next to me in the very back of the car, turned around as we started to move. “Laous is ready,” he said, “let’s get out of here.”
Lexen took off then in a squeal of tires. He leaned over and whispered to Emma in the passenger seat, and she nodded. I noticed the other two guys do the same thing to their mates.
“Don’t say anything important, the car could be bugged,” Xander said, close to my ear.
I nodded, sinking back against the chair. Exhaustion was starting to press on me. I’d barely slept last night, and then when we’d supposed to be resting today, I’d been … really busy with Xander. I had no regrets about that—I’d never forget my afternoon with him. But it did mean I was edging toward needing some sleep.
“The airfield is about forty minutes away,” Xander told me. “Why don’t you try and get some sleep.”
How the hell he knew I was tired was beyond me. I was doing everything in my power to appear like I had my shit together. “It’s fine,” I said, shaking my head. “I’m perfectly fine right now.”
He wrapped an arm around me, pulling me against his chest. “You need sleep. You also need food. I can’t remember the last time we all ate.”
On the plane, if I recalled correctly. Which was hours ago. It was nearing nightfall now. The storm clouds still hanging low over Astoria had washed the world in darkness. Shifting around in my seat, I gave up fighting my heavy eyes and allowed myself to relax against Xander. I might have been naked with him a few hours ago, but sleeping was a completely new sort of vulnerability. My body apparently trusted him though, because I almost immediately fell asleep, waking only when the car pulled to a stop.
Xander brushed a hand across my cheek. I lifted my head, groggy and disoriented, and it took me a few moments to remember what had happened, to remember that we were on our way to find a stone, and we had a small entourage of evil psychopaths with us.
I didn’t even want to know what that chick had meant about wearing Callie’s mother. Just no.
Xander lifted me up. I shook my head, trying to wake properly. “You can sleep again on the flight,” he told me. “Even with special tech, it’s still going to take quite a few hours to get there.”
Special tech indeed. When we exited the vehicle, it was to stand before a gleaming black beast. Nighthawk was etched into the side of it in large letters, and I noted that it appeared to have twin engines on either wing, plus rotors on the top. I blinked as I stumbled closer, still half asleep.
“What the hell sort of material is that made of?” I asked, trying to see it clearly.
The black metal, constantly shifting color, shimmered silver one second, black the next, even going almost sky blue.
“Looks like it has chameleon technology,” Maya noted. “My dad told me that the government has been working on this for our defense systems. The aircraft will mimic its surroundings, blending right in so they can stealthily fly over enemy territories.”
That was exactly what this helicopter-plane was doing. If you changed the angle of your head, it looked different. Two pilots were waiting for us at the bottom of the stairs. Laous crowded right up to them, a creepy smile on his face
“Welcome aboard,” the first pilot said in a serious tone of voice. He looked between all of us. “I’m Major Kenneth Cole, and I’ll be guiding this aircraft for you this evening. We will be departing at eighteen-hundred hours. Please make your way on board and secure yourselves into one of the chairs. We move extremely fast, so it’s best to remain seated and buckled in at all times.”