Gifted Ones

Chapter 32 Amber

"Alright," one of the guards says after a very, very long time in the car. I don't know where we're going, but we've been driving for at least nine hours. I feel someone messing with the blindfold tie at the back of my head. "This is going to need to come off. We can't have people ask questions. But don't even think about trying to run."

I nod carefully as the fabric is lifted up over my head, letting me see the interior of the car. It looks like an SUV, very tall, very big. The seats are leather, as I had guessed previously. The people in the car aren't how I imagined them, though. They look like anyone I might pass by on the street; normal clothes, normal faces. I could meet with any one of them at the mall, really, except that they all look at me with a superior, cold look on their faces, like how a king might look at a particularly nasty peasant in the street.

I cower in the corner of the car, eyeing the doorknob with longing. But I don't dare jump from the car. I would never be able to get away and they would kill me in a heartbeat. Not to mention that the leap itself might kill me, or at least seriously injure my body. No, I'm totally at their mercy, just as I've been since the day I was taken prisoner.

They don't stare at me for long, talking amongst themselves loudly. I guess that they don't care whether I hear them or not.

"I've heard that they got away," one of them says. "That the clan members we intercepted on the flight to DC escaped. I mean, we can't be sure that survived after we lost contact with the London team, but I've heard that they were seen in Pennsylvania, trying to get to the others." I wonder which group Haven was in.

"We definitely have a lock on the larger group, though," a woman from the front adds. "They've completed the second Trial already. We're hoping to catch them right at the third."

"You know, there've been rumors that Lord Gabriel has called in every single member of his army, from all over the globe," the driver chimes in.

"How do you know that?"

"Well, I had a friend in Germany who said that his branch got called in for this, and that he'd heard from a couple Japanese people that their stations were contacted as well," he says.

"You don't think that he's assembling everyone?"

"I think it makes sense," the girl up front says. "If they get their hands on the Amulet, just our branch alone doesn't have a prayer of stopping them."

"Do you really think that the whole army can? I mean, the rumors about the Amulet are. . ." The guard beside me struggles to find an appropriate word. "Unimaginable."

There is a long pause as they consider this information. Then the woman says, "stupid bastards! Don't they know that we're only helping them? I mean, we're all going to live like kings once Gabriel has succeeded! It's not them that we're after, but the way they carry on you would think we killed their freaking family members! The humans have oppressed up for years, kept us in the dark, shoved us into the shadows. And how many have they executed in the Witch Trials back in the day? It's their turn to pay, and it's our turn in the light for once! Whose with me?"

A chorus of cheers and applause fills the car, loud and aggressive. I cower in my corner, shutting my eyes as if that will make all of them go away.

"Are you scared?" The man beside me asks. I look up to see his nasty face inches from mine, grinning sadistically. My tongue goes dry in my mouth; I can't speak. This only makes his grin widen.

"Good, good. I think you have some idea of how powerful we are, don't you?" When I don't say anything the grin vanishes and his eyes glint dangerously. "Don't you?"