Page 172 of Envious Of Fire
“I’ll take it to the media, then,” he grunts. “I’m not staying silent. And I’m sure as fuck not waiting it out until morning. 1025’s fine, he’s breathing. Why aren’t we gone already?”
That’s when the person standing next to Raya snorts at the others, a guy with short black curls of hair, olive skin, and eyes that shimmer with passion as he faces them. “The fuck, guys? Where’d your courage go? Did you all forget who this is?” He peers down at Kaleb, takes his hand. “His name is Kaleb. He’sbeen my closest friend in this whole place, like a big brother to me, and you guys want to just ditch him? He was the only one who tried talking sense into us that night we tried to pull one over on the gods. And he turned out to be right. Now we reallyaregetting outta here, and you’re just gonna toss Kaleb aside?”
The guy with the scalpel huffs. “I’m not tossing him aside, 987, you oversensitive baby, we’re just—”
“Nico,” he cuts him off. “My name isNico. Your girlfriend has a name, too, and it isn’t ‘4’. We all have real names. Claim them back. Use them.” He turns to the bed. “I’m gonna make damned sure Kaleb gets home safely, that is my first priority. I’m gonna make sure my friend here gets better, gets back to laughing at my stupid jokes, that’s what I’m doing.”
“But your brother back in San Diego …” 4 starts.
“I’ll return to him soon. To the beach, the bakery … all of it.” His tone sounds more like he’s promising himself. “But not until I know Kaleb’s fine.”
Kyle gazes over the anxious faces in the room who haven’t spoken up. Then Doctor Mei. Raya. Indecision and skepticism hang heavily in the air. Tension lives in the eyeballs of every person surrounding the bed.
Kyle decides to open the invitation formally. “When we get out of here, you all have a choice. I’m not forcing any of you to come with me back to my town. I can’t guarantee your safety anyway, but … what I do know is that everyone there knows about the vampires, and I have a few amazing friends who are likely still working to protect us from them as we speak.” He gazes down at his brother, then finds himself fighting back yet another wave of tears. He still can’t believe Kaleb’s alive. “I’m taking my brother there with me. Raya, you’re welcome, too.”
“Thank you,” she says, sounding oddly surprised.
Kyle glances at Mei. “I don’t know if you plan to join us or not, but can you help me pack some medicine for my brother?Antibiotics? Anything he might need that I wouldn’t think of?”
Mei lifts a bag onto the foot of the bed. “One step ahead of you, cowboy.”
Suddenly the room trembles. Everyone fights an instinct to duck, eyes darting around, until the room quickly settles again.
Raya clears her throat. “Shall I politely lead the way out?”
“Yes,” says Kyle, “and quickly.”
Everyone is instantly on the move. Kyle scoops his brother into his arms, the doctor lifts the bag off the bed and swings it over an arm, and the whole group of just under twenty flee the room with haste. Raya, like a queen missing only a scepter and crown, proudly leads the way, her heels clicking on the ground as her black dress swishes grandly down the hall.
The House has since settled into a mundane state of being, with the illusionary elements only occasionally swelling into and drifting out of existence, like slowed breathing, tiredly, no longer flickering wildly. Perhaps it really is a sign of Markadian dying. His power, fading from the walls of the House itself.
Kyle won’t spend a second’s worth of sympathy on that evil man. “Good riddance,” he mutters under his breath, happy to be rid of him, to be rid of the House, to be free from everything and anything that has to do with this demented place.
It’s upon entering a narrow corridor that Kyle feels it.
His Reach flying ahead of him, like a dog freed, the leash slipping straight out of his hand.
It picks up the crashing of waves. An ocean twisted up by a raging hurricane of anxiety. Churning and tossing the waters any way nature pleases. Ships tumbling helplessly around in the sea. Captains shouting, wheels spinning, sails ripped to shreds.
Kyle recognizes that tumultuous ocean at once.
He stops at a fork in the hall. “We gotta go down here,” he says, pointing the other way.
Raya stops. “That leads into the hotel. If we gothisway, wecan move through the tunnels, which avoids contact with any of Markadian’s—”
“Elias is this way,” he says. “I can feel him.”
Raya blinks. “Who?”
“My boyfriend. Son of Madame Rose, owner of the—”
“I know who Madame Rose is. Wait. Are you saying your boyfriend is—?” She lets out a brief, annoyed sigh. “Of course. Tristan keeps so many fucking secrets to himself. He never told me. Oh.” She peers at Kyle curiously. “When I spoke Tristan’s name, your heart danced around it. And again when I repeated it just now. Should I not speak of him?”
Kyle looks away, ignores the question. “I think we should go through the hotel, not the tunnels. I want all of us caught on as many security cameras as possible.”
“Oh,” murmurs 4 thoughtfully, “smart.”
“I won’t let them cover this up,” says Kyle, “like they cover up the existence of this place, cover up my friend’s death … Brock’s death … cover up all their tracks and get away with everything.”
