Undertow by K.R. Conway (1st book in trilogy)

Chapter 18

Kian carefully handed Ana off to MJ, who climbed in the back with her. Her body lay motionless on the leather seat, her head in MJ's lap. He stroked her blonde hair to let her know he was near, but whether she understood or not, was beyond our knowledge.

Driving along the roads to the dock, I watched the cheap cottages whiz past my window. It was the same landscape I had watched float past MJ's car when he drove me to school that first, fateful day. The day I met Raef, who had come to school posing as a student to find me. To protect me for the sake of a grandmother I had never known.

Why had Elizabeth met Rysse in the town square? Why did she even let him get close enough to grab her? Even worse, it appeared as though she didn't fight back in my dreams when he grabbed her, instead allowing a white fire to encompass them both, ending their lives. Was that planned? Did she intend to die or was it a horrible accident? The questions were maddening, as if we were navigating a burning house, blindfolded.

But something was wrong with the way she died. Something we were missing. We needed the diary desperately and I gripped the photo book in my lap tightly, watching Kian drive. The hard lines of his face unsettled me as did the memory of him killing the seventeen-year-old in my room.

Even worse, I had felt my own need to murder the boy flow inside my veins and, had I been more adept at my power, I would have killed him without remorse. I knew there was a violence that waited silently inside me, marked only by a brand on my back, and I was terrified. Was it possible I was worse than the Mortis?

I glanced at Kian who was on the phone with Raef and while I could only hear one side of the conversation, it was decidedly heated. From what I could gather, we were going to head to Boston and meet up with Raef. He had followed a lead to the city and may finally have located some useful information relating to the buyer.

Kian quickly dialed the dock, asking that the Cerberus be readied to leave ASAP. He ended the call and looked in the rear view mirror. "MJ? Does Ana have her phone on her?" asked Kian.

"Not sure. Hang on," said MJ and he reached in her pant pockets searching for her mobile phone. A few seconds passed, then he held up Ana's lime green phone. "Bingo!"

"Check for Dalca's cell number. We need to let her know what's going on. She could be in danger as well," said Kian, turning down North Street. We were only a couple miles from the docks now. The sun was hidden behind the trees, falling fast.

"Damn. The phone is cracked," said MJ. "I can't get it to turn on. It must have been crushed when she fell."

Kian looked at MJ in the rearview mirror, "Do you have her number?"

"No man. Only Ana did."

Kian glanced at her still profile and his jaw was set in a hard line. "It's alright. We'll deal with it later."

As we swung around the last brick building on North Street, the Cerberus came into view, lit up and elegant in its slip. I could see workers walking along the wooden dock beside her, untying thick white ropes and tossing them onboard.  I looked back at Ana who was still unconscious. I realized we were going to have to carry her past the workers. "What are we going to say about her?" I asked, worried.

"We'll just say she drank too much and we're getting her back to her family," he said, pulling my Jeep into the parking spot next to the yacht. I was about to protest, but he was already out of the car and reaching carefully for the girl he loved last summer.

Kian carried her to the Cerberus and climbed quickly onboard. I followed, watching the quizzical looks of two dockworkers. I gestured to Ana and just said, "drunk," with a weak smile. I wasn't sure if they bought it, but they continued working.