Chapter Twenty-Two
“What is this place that we’re going to?” I asked in a quiet voice.
“I don’t know,” Quinton murmured softly. “I’ve never been here before. I’ve never even been in this area before. I have no idea what’s out here.”
That wasn’t comforting or anything.
“Maybe we should turn around and go back home?” I asked in a hopeful voice.
It was all wishful thinking on my part. I knew he couldn’t turn the car around and take me home, no matter how much he wanted to. And I knew he wanted nothing more than to do just that. If Quinton could have kept us all from coming to this place, I knew he would have. He would have come himself and left the rest of us behind. That had not been an option open to him.
Not for the first time, I felt sorry for Quinton on so many different levels.
“I’m with Ariel,” Tyson said from the backseat. “I think we should head on home now. I don’t think anything good will come from this meeting.”
I nodded in agreement with him, mostly because I just wanted to go home. However, I wasn’t about to abandon Quinton to be on his own.
This place gave me the creeps.
It took us an hour and a half by car to get here. That part I liked. That they weren’t exactly camped out in our backward. Frankly, an hour and a half wasn’t entirely far enough away from my liking. I was thinking a different country would still be too close for me. Another planet might work. I would be able to breathe a little easier knowing they were on a different planet, it would lower their creep factor spectacularly.
“This place is straight out of a horror movie,” I grumbled to them both. “We’re all probably going to die here tonight. I’d rather go home and die eating Damien’s cooking. That’s actually starting to sound rather appealing at the moment. Death by slightly overcooked cornbread that tastes similar to something scraped out of the bottom of a dumpster. Sign me up for some of that.”
“Jesus, Ariel,” Quinton ground out. “Shut up. No one is dying here tonight.”
“You shut up,” I snapped back.
I didn’t believe him because I hadn’t been lying when I’d said this place looked like it was straight out of a horror movie.
The dirt road we were on was littered with colorful leaves that crunched under the Rover’s tires.
From out the front passenger window, darkness was the only view to see. There were no street lights here and the moon seemed non-existent. Why weren’t there street lights on dirt roads out in the Boonies? It would make things a whole lot less creepy. I hadn’t seen a street light once in the last twenty-five minutes. That had been around the time we’d left the highway. We had driven past some run-down gas station that had a whole two gas pumps out front and they had certainly seen better days. A lone, rusty pickup truck had been parked in front of the gas station and there hadn’t been a single trace of life to be seen. That had been around the time I’d seen my last street light. Thank goodness we hadn’t needed to stop for gas or anything else because we would have been shit out of luck.
If not for the headlights, we would be cruising through absolute darkness.
The further we cruised into the darkness the larger the pit in my stomach grew with dread. The weight felt so heavy that I was almost sure if someone were to throw me into a lake I would sink to the bottom and probably drown.
“Can someone tell me why the Council is staying out here in the middle of freaking nowhere?” I asked when the quiet was starting to get to me. I kept fidgeting in my seat and it was becoming apparent I rambled when I got nervous. Good to know, I guess. “Do they have something against hotels in the city, or do you think they own land out here or something? Would that be weird for them to own land this close to where you guys live? I think it’s weird.”
Quinton sighed loudly into the dark car. I think I was starting to get on his nerves just a little bit with my constant string of questions and whining about wanting to go home and not wanting to see the Council.
So far, outside of telling me to shut up the one time, he was showing a great deal of patience with me. I think that loud sigh meant his patience with me was wearing thin. It probably wouldn’t be long before he was snapping at me every two seconds. I wouldn’t even blame him for it if he did. We were all on edge.
The Council had called Quinton and he’d been unable to find a reason to refuse them. They felt it was time and they wanted to meet me. They’d told Quinton that they could either come to us or we could go to them. For some reason that he refused to share with me, Quinton did not want them to know that I lived alone with Dash. And he really had not wanted them in his house. As much as I didn’t like the place, I would have preferred we do this at the Alexander house. It had to be better than whatever we were traveling to in the dark middle of nowhere.
Quinton had disagreed with me so here we were.
Julian, Damien and Dash were in the silver SUV behind us. Abel and Addison were in their big truck behind the SUV. The twins hadn’t wanted to be separated and they hadn’t wanted to ride with anyone else, so they drove their own vehicle. After what they’d told me, I didn’t think they were into this whole meeting with the Council of Elders either. Part of me couldn’t help feeling like they’d driven their truck so they that they had a readily available getaway car if they needed to bail and fast. Who could blame them for it?
The only people who’d seemed entirely unconcerned were Julian, Damien and Dash. They had acted like the whole things was no big deal and treated this trip as if we were simply going to the grocery store or something of the like. I didn’t understand any of them. If it put Scary Uncle Quinton on edge, then I felt it warranted putting the rest of us on the edge right along with him.
“We’re here,” Quinton said in a grave voice and I snapped to attention, focusing on what lay ahead.
The building we were approaching, it was long and two stories. The second floor had its very own outdoor balcony that ran along the entire length of the building with a set of stairs on each end. There were several doors and windows lined up on each floor.
I realized what I was looking at.
“Is this a motel?” I asked in a quiet, confused voice. “Why is there a motel out here in the middle of nowhere? And, why is the Council of Elders staying out here at it? This place would not look inviting to anyone other than a serial killer or a weirdo with a chronic masturbating problem who fancied small goats.”
When I realized I was rambling again, I snapped my mouth shut before Quinton had a chance to tell me to shut up again. It didn’t feel appropriate to push him at the moment.
There were torches placed a few feet apart, running the entire length of the upstairs balcony. There were also torches placed in the ground beside the doors on the bottom level. I counted eight doors on the bottom level and eight on the top.
A motel out in the middle of nowhere with sixteen rooms for rent. I didn’t care if there were vacancy’s, I wouldn’t be staying the night. No fucking way.
Six black SUV’s were parked in front of the building. The vehicles had windows tinted so dark there would be absolutely no peaking inside to see who was being driven around in there. And it did look like a vehicle that would come with a driver and some kind of Columbian drug lord in the middle seat. And there would certainly be someone inside with guns.
Quinton parked the Rover beside an SUV at the end of the line.
“I think I’ll wait here in the car,” I said in a small voice. My hand gripped the handle on the door so hard I knew it would leave red marks on my hand. My old friend pain, I hardly felt it.
I had a bad feeling. If I got out of this vehicle there was a chance my world would change, and nothing would ever be the same again. There was also a chance absolutely nothing would change. Bad things could happen, and I highly doubted anything good would come from this adventure.
A hand landed gently on my thigh, making me jump. Heat seared into me through the black slacks I had been forced to wear. No leggings or short-shorts for me this time. Guess that’s what happened when guys thought they were now in charge of your wardrobe. Just my luck.
Orange and yellow flames licked their way up the arm attached to the hand on my thigh. Quinton. Always there for me when I needed him to be. I did indeed love him just a little bit. Probably a whole lot.
I covered his hand with my own.
“Everything is going to be absolutely fine,” he promised me in a sincere voice. “We’re not going to let anything bad happen to you. All the Council really wants is to get a good look at you. And, can you blame them? There are so few females with magic, you know you’re rare and that kind of makes you a big deal.”
I had no desire to be rare or a big deal. I wanted to be left alone, not gawked at or looked over like I was soon to be going up for auction or something. Gross.
Tyson leaned in-between the two front seats. He placed his warm hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze.
“It’s also a big deal that they claim to not have any clue where you came from,” he said in an enthusiastic voice. “Your mother wasn’t a witch and we all know now about your father. We’ve not told them anything about him yet, so this should be interesting to see how they play it. Supposedly, nobody knows who your father was. Funny enough, the community isn’t big enough for there to be rogue witches that no one knows about. It doesn’t work like that and either the Council really does know nothing about you, which would be a first time ever, or they’ve been lying through their teeth and will have lots of covering their asses to do tonight.”
I knew they were trying to help here, but they weren’t being successful. They were actually doing the exact opposite. They were freaking me out and making me feel like I really did have something to fear here. If they hadn’t tried to comfort me, then my anxiety wouldn’t have grown tenfold.
I opened the passenger door, shrugged off Tyson’s hand and slid out from underneath Quinton’s.
When my feet were on the ground, I spun around and leaned back into the Rover. Fear of the assholes of this world, and just plain old assholes themselves, weren’t going to rule me anymore. I wouldn’t allow it.
“They aren’t all knowing,” I told them in a strong voice. “They had no idea about Mr. Cole’s sister until she was in her late teens, then they stole her away from her family. Look how that turned out, now she’s dead. I know these people aren’t good people, you don’t have to try and frighten me, but I do appreciate you not sugar-coating things. And, I’m not worried about whether they know about my father or who I am. I know who I am, and I know who my father is. His name is Rain Kimber and when this bullshit is over with, I’m going to find him, no matter what it takes. I could give a crap less what these crazy people have to say to me about it and, honestly, I think you should do the same.”
I stepped back and shut the door on their surprised faces, feeling more than a bit surprised myself.
I sighed as I turned my back on the Rover.
And opened my mouth and screamed bloody murder.