The Bloom Series Box Set: Bloom & Fade Page 6

  As she walked through the grey and black ruin, her feet kicked up small clouds of fine powder, which floated into the air and clung to her clothes. She had barely taken ten steps and it looked as if she had been crawling around in dirty air vents all afternoon.

  Yellow police tape still encircled the yard to keep out anyone with more than a passing curiosity about the unusual fire that had so quickly consumed the Kincaid home. She had been told that she was allowed to come back anytime she wanted, as long as she called the local police and informed them of her visit.

  The fire was classified as “unusual” because the Fire Scene Investigator could not yet determine what started the blaze. The authorities suspected arson due to the strange red color of the flames, so they had been searching for an accelerant—some type of chemical that started and fed the powerful fire.

  Haven’s parents had both been in bed at the time—presumably asleep—and had suffocated on the poisonous fumes.

  The police could find no sign of Noah. Haven overheard one of the firemen explaining to a news reporter that the remains of those who died in a fire were usually very easy to identify. Sometimes only a bone was left, but it was enough to run a DNA test and identify the victim. Haven was still unclear as to whether or not the police intended to classify the fire as an accident—they told her they couldn’t be sure until they ran more tests. No one seemed to want to talk to her about the devastating incident. Whenever she managed to pull someone aside, they simply said that they were working on it and would have an answer for her soon.

  Haven felt utterly helpless.

  Noah’s room—which had collapsed down through the first floor and fallen into the kitchen—was covered with pieces of his burned bed. A few blackened toys lay scattered across the broken floor. The police had briefly mentioned that it could have been a kidnapping, but Haven could tell by the look on their faces that they thought it was only a matter of time before they found his remains in the ashes. They had no leads to follow besides the black car that Haven had seen driving away from her home when the fire started. Since she hadn’t seen the license plate or the driver, the chances of the police finding the car were practically zero.

  Haven hugged herself and shivered as she walked through the ruins of her home. Most of the second floor had completely fallen through to the first, leaving the burnt, skeletal frame around the outside of the house open to the air. The sky above was grey with rain clouds. Thunder rumbled in the distance; it was supposed to rain later that afternoon.

  She brushed the tears from her eyes and stopped at the threshold to her parents’ room, hesitant to go any farther. What was left of their bed mattress covered the broken pieces of the bed frame in the middle of the room. A huge hole was burned right through the center of the mattress in a long oval that was exactly where her parents had been sleeping when—

  Haven quickly turned and walked away to search other parts of the house.

  Her closest relatives were her Aunt and Uncle in San Diego. They couldn’t make it out for the funeral service and had wired her some money so she could stay in a hotel just down the street until she got her plans figured out. They said she could even stay with them if she wanted. Everyone kept telling her that the best thing she could do after something traumatic was to be around other people, but she didn’t care. Haven wanted to be alone so she didn’t have to listen to anyone telling her how sorry they were for her loss.

  The service for her parents had been two days earlier at the funeral home across town. Extended family flew in from all over the country; people she hadn’t seen in years and barely remembered. They were all nice to her, mumbling their apologies and offering to do anything if they were able, just to let them know. She thanked them all and tried to be as sweet as possible but couldn’t say much more than that because she would start crying again. It took her at least half an hour to stop once the tears started.

  Everything she did reminded her of her family. She needed a dress for the funeral, and that made her think of all the times she went shopping with her mother. The first time she ate a bowl of cereal after the fire, she couldn’t help but think about trying not to wake her parents whenever she crept downstairs at night to eat ice cream.

  She felt absolutely awful about not being nicer to them in the weeks leading up to the fire.

  Haven stopped next to the collapsed frame of the couch in the family room and kicked at a small pile of rubble. The tip of her shoe caught on something small and pushed it under the couch. She knelt down and pulled it from the ashes.

  It was a glow-in-the-dark star from the ceiling in Noah’s room. One of the five points had burned off. She wiped a fresh tear from her cheek and rubbed her wet finger against the star to wash away the black soot covering the plastic.

  Haven had been unable to get past the crippling guilt that consumed her in the first week after she lost her parents. She did little more than spend every day in her hotel room, yelling at herself and pounding the walls because she had gone to that party and hadn’t stayed home with her family.

  The guilt gradually lessened after the first week, but she knew it would never fully go away.

  Haven squeezed Noah’s star in her fist before putting it into her jeans pocket.

  She walked over the debris in the family room and onto the front yard. The grass was burned twenty feet out from the house in all directions. The fire department had been able to stop the flames from spreading to the neighboring houses, but there was nothing they could do to save Haven’s home; it was already too far gone by the time they arrived.

  The speed at which the house was consumed gave more credibility to the theory that an accelerant had been used, and meant that—if anyone had kidnapped her brother—they had also murdered her parents by purposely starting the fire to cover their tracks. As Haven walked toward the street and the waiting police car, she couldn’t help but feel hatred toward the officer inside along with every other person who was supposed to be helping to find her missing brother and the people who had killed her parents.

  She didn’t say anything as she got into the passenger seat and closed the door. All she did was cross her arms and watch the ruins of her home drift away as the officer pulled the car out onto the street and drove toward her hotel.

  13

  Haven’s first day back at George Walker High School started terribly.

  She was given a police escort a few days earlier when the “experts” were supposedly getting ready to declare Noah’s absence a kidnapping. A police officer trailed after her wherever she walked—which was hardly anywhere—and drove her to the few places she was forced to visit.

  When her escort dropped her off in front of school that morning, reporters were already waiting for her, microphones in hand. They pushed forward as she got out of the car, leaning to the side so their cameramen could get that all-important close-up of a girl who had lost everything. The reporters shouted questions about how it made her feel to know that her parents’ killers were still on the loose, and could she please tell everyone how scared and worried she was about her kidnapped brother.

  Even though the arson and kidnapping was still a solidifying theory, the local press picked up the story and ran with it. Haven had to change hotels twice because of the sea of reporters that waited outside her room after they found out where she was staying. The more days that passed without any sign of Noah in the ashes, the more certain everyone became that it was kidnapping and murder.

  Haven kept her mouth shut as she shoved her way through the crowd and into the school. The reporters weren’t allowed past the front gates, and she was at least thankful for that much.

  The day went downhill from there.

  She didn’t understand why she even had to go back in the first place. There was no reason she couldn’t have done all of her work from her hotel room. The stay at the hotel was only temporary, though, since she found out the state wouldn’t allow her to live anywhere without an adult guardian for too much longer. She
may have been able to get away with it if her life hadn’t turned into such a media circus.

  Principal Rivera had dropped the idea of Haven switching to Advanced Placement courses in light of the tragedy, which suited Haven just fine. She doubted she would be completing her school work anyway.

  What’s the point? she thought.

  Life had turned into endless days of sitting at the police station, answering the same questions about her family over and over again. No, she didn’t know of anyone who may have wanted to hurt her parents and kidnap her brother. No, she was absolutely certain she loved them and never wanted anything bad to happen to them. The line of questioning that led to that last statement disturbed Haven more than anything else. The implication was that she had something to do with the horrible fire. The first time one of the policemen had even remotely hinted at that possibility, Haven screamed at him and ran out of the room.

  Now that she was back at school, Haven hoped that some small degree of normalcy would creep back into her life and that she could put the events of the past several weeks behind her.

  If only it were that easy.

  Everywhere she went in the school, students looked at her suspiciously and whispered to each other, laughing or staring wide-eyed in potential fear. It wasn’t until she finally caught up with Kayla in between classes that she learned the reason why.

  “Hey,” said Haven as she walked up to Kayla’s locker. Kayla put a book inside and pulled out a folder that she dropped into her backpack.

  “Oh, hey!” She zipped up her backpack and slung it over her shoulder, then started walking down the hallway.

  “I called you, like, a hundred times last week,” said Haven. “Why didn’t you ever pick up?”

  Kayla wouldn’t make eye contact with her. “I thought you needed your space, you know? I didn’t want to bother you.”

  “I needed someone to talk to, Kayla.” said Haven. She had to swallow to stop her throat from tightening. “You’re supposed to be my friend. I thought I could count on you.”

  “Look, I’m sorry, alright? I don’t do well with…with situations like that.”

  “Yeah, me either. But you could have answered your phone.”

  They passed a group of students who stopped talking and stared at Haven.

  “Why does everyone keep doing that?” she asked. “They stare at me like I’m some kind of freak.”

  “You mean you don’t know?” said Kayla.

  “Know what?”

  Kayla stopped and sighed. “They all think you did it.”

  “‘Did it’? What do you mean? Did what?”

  Kayla still wouldn’t look at her. “You know…”

  Haven’s eyes opened in shock. “They think I burned my own house down?!”

  Every student within earshot stopped what they were doing and turned to look at her.

  “Shhh!” said Kayla. “Keep your voice down.”

  “But you were there! You saw it yourself!”

  “I already told them,” said Kayla. “Over and over again, but they didn’t care. Ever since one of the reporters said they hadn’t ruled you out as a suspect, it’s the only thing they believe. You know how rumors work. The worst one is always the favorite.”

  “Well, that’s just great!” said Haven, throwing up her hands in frustration. “Everyone at school thinks I’m some kind of psycho!”

  “I don’t,” said Kayla. “You know the truth, and that’s all that matters. Look, my class is right over there. I gotta go.”

  “Kayla, wait!”

  Kayla walked away and ducked into her classroom. Haven stood on the sidewalk in front of the building, too stunned to move.

  The bell rang. Students hurried past, trying to get to class before the teacher marked them tardy and sentenced them to detention. Haven watched them scurry inside, and she was both envious and furious that the biggest thing most of them had to worry about was punctuality.

  She walked slowly to her next class—history, her least favorite. The teacher didn’t say anything when Haven walked in five minutes late, he just paused and waited. All the students stared at her as she walked to the back of the room and sat at her desk. The teacher cleared his throat to get the students’ attention, then resumed his lesson.

  Haven wasn’t hungry at lunchtime, but she wanted to catch up with Kayla and reclaim a sense of what her life was like before the fire—even if it was only a fraction of what it used to be. She was still mad at her for not picking up her stupid phone when Haven needed her most, but they could talk about that later.

  She walked into the cafeteria and looked for her friend. It was the very beginning of lunch, so most of the tables were full. Kayla sat on the other side of the room and Haven started to make her way across the cafeteria.

  As she got closer, she noticed that Kayla was sitting with someone—a boy. The boy said something and Kayla laughed. She flipped her hair back playfully and touched the boy’s arm. Haven couldn’t see who it was since he had his back to her, but as far as she knew Kayla didn’t have a boyfriend. Maybe she had picked one up while Haven was away.

  Haven smiled as she walked up to the table, happy to meet Kayla’s new guy. Kayla noticed her when she was still a couple steps away and stopped laughing immediately. She stared at Haven like a deer caught in headlights. Her mouth was slightly open as if she wanted to say something but couldn’t force out the words. She just sat there, dumbfounded, while Haven walked up, smiling.

  The boy turned around in his seat. It was Jason. “Oh, man…” he said. He turned back to his food and stabbed at some french fries with his fork.

  “Haven, I—I’m sorry,” said Kayla. “I know I should have told you…”

  Haven walked past the table quickly.

  “Wait!” said Kayla.

  “Let her go,” said Jason. “If she can’t grow up, then that’s her problem.”

  Haven felt blood rush to her face. She ran toward the exit and planned to keep running as soon as she was outside. She wouldn’t stop until she was far away from that place—from those people. She wanted answers. No more waiting, no more uncertainty; she would make the police find out who killed her parents and kidnapped Noah.

  Haven was halfway to the cafeteria door when an unusual heat blossomed on the back of her neck and ran down her spine. It spread outward, stretching to every part of her body. The blushing warmth in her face paled in comparison to the boiling heat that coursed beneath her skin. Arms, legs, torso, and head—every part of her felt like it was burning. She stopped walking and looked down at herself to make sure she was not actually on fire.

  “Hey, what’s wrong with her?” someone said from a nearby table.

  Haven tried to run, but her legs wouldn’t move. She tried to call for help but her voice caught in her throat.

  She looked down in horror as a bright blue ball of light formed around her right hand.

  Not here, she thought. Not now.

  Another sphere of light grew from the palm of her other hand until it completely encompassed her wrist and fingers. It looked as if she had stuck her hands into two large balls of blue light. Haven tried to run again, then realized that her feet weren’t touching the ground. She floated into the air and hovered next to a table, still rising toward the ceiling.

  The students in the cafeteria screamed and backed away. Several of them held up food trays for protection.

  The blue light from Haven’s hands turned to flames and spread to cover her entire body, like fire crawling over gasoline-soaked wood. She felt a tingling sensation on each of her shoulder blades and looked behind her as two huge wings of blue energy unfolded from her back. The tips of the wings touched the ceiling and burned black holes into its smooth surface.

  In the shiny plastic reflection on the bottom of the food trays that were being held up for protection, Haven saw a blue angel hovering above the tables of the cafeteria. Her hair floated around her head as if she were submerged in calm water.

  Her vision fil
led with light and she reached up to feel the energy pulsing from her eyes. The flames covering her body cracked like lightning and whipped back and forth violently—a thousand dancing snakes made of blue fire.

  Haven’s back arched and she screamed. A flat circle of blue energy shot out from the middle of her body. Nearby students dove to the ground as the ring expanded and passed overhead. It shattered every window in the room and burned into the walls, leaving behind a black strip that ran completely around the inside walls of the cafeteria.

  By that point the students no longer cared to see what happened next. They pushed each other out of the way in a mad scramble to leave the cafeteria.

  The blue energy faded from Haven’s vision. Darkness clouded her sight and she felt weak. Her body dropped from the air and fell to the hard ground. She looked up at the ceiling until the world around her faded to black.

  14

  Colton sat with Reece in the back of a dark SUV and fidgeted nervously with the window controls.

  “I still don’t get why they won’t let us roll the windows down,” he said.

  “Who cares?” said Reece. He settled into his plush leather seat and leaned it as far back as it would go, then folded his arms behind his head and kicked off his shoes. “Stop worrying. I trust the man completely.”

  Alistair was with the driver in the front of the SUV behind a partition of black glass that separated the cab from the rest of the vehicle. Colton hadn’t been introduced to the driver; he and Reece were ushered into the SUV as soon as they walked out of the abandoned building.

  He had no clue where they were at that moment, and Alistair hadn’t spoken to them in over an hour. Colton flicked the window switch and sank back into his seat.

  The rear section of the SUV had been made up to look more like a limousine than an off-road vehicle. A bench lined the very back and two swiveling leather recliners took up the remaining space. There were two LCD screens mounted into the paneling, one on each side of the driver’s glass partition, but neither Colton nor Reece had been able to figure out how to turn them on.