Linked

Chapter 7

Kyle

I glanced sideways at Kaileen, who had a steely, determined expression on her face. We were currently walking to Elia's house, in hopes of finding any kind of clue. When we got to the towering mansion with shiny metal walls, she climbed over the wall easily, with the lithe movements of a cat. On the other hand, I wasn't a practiced climber like she was, and I fumbled to get a handhold on the nearly perfectly smooth wall. Kaileen's head poked back over the top of the wall, and I marveled at how angelic she looked with her dark hair haloing her fair, slim face. "Are you okay?" she asked, grinning down at me as the breeze lifted strands of her hair and tickled her cheeks.

"Sure," I grunted. "Not everyone is as good at climbing over walls as you are, you know." She extended a hand out to me, and I held onto it as she pulled me over more easily than I would have thought it to be possible for a small girl like Kaileen. She had real muscles, not the surgery-strengthened body parts of almost everyone in the city these days, including myself. I knew that she trained with her friend Julian almost every day, but it was still a shock to see the wiry muscles in her arm flex as she let me go and hopped down onto the perfectly manicured lawn of the Kayders mansion.

When we reached the front door, we looked around for open windows because we expected the door to be locked, but to our surprise, it swung open smoothly. We decided to separate and Kaileen would search Elia's room while I would search Elia's twin sister's room just in case. I creaked open the hot pink door that led to Eria's room while at the same time, Kaileen opened the light birchwood door to Elia's room.

The first thing I saw when I came in was Eria and her Link, Nathan kissing rather passionately on her bed. Eria was only wearing a blue lace bra and black short shorts. They slowly untangled themselves, and Nathan looked up at me lazily, seemingly unconcerned that they had an audience.

"What are you doing here?" Eria asked, as she tossed a loose t-shirt on.

"Umm..." I stuttered. She walked up closer to me, and I could smell the rose-scented perfume wafting off her hair. I was tempted to tell her that we were going to try to save her sister, but I felt like I shouldn't, because it was a secret, after all.

"What are you doing here?" she repeated, more threateningly.

I was saved from having to answer because a shrill, high-pitched scream came from next door.