Darkhaven

I regretted sleeping at the table in the morning. I’d always needed at least eight – preferably nine – hours of sleep a night, and it seemed that enhanced physical strength and tissue repair didn’t mean I could suddenly get away with less. With negative-ten minutes to get ready, I waved a toothbrush in front of my teeth, nearly poked myself in the eye with mascara and raced out the door, still applying lip gloss, hoping I wouldn’t have to wait half an hour for the next bus. That was the worst thing about Alex’s – Cecelia’s, Dad’s and my school were all within a few kilometres of each other in West Beach. If Dad had an early meeting, Nancy was always happy to drop me at school. From here, if Alex was busy, I had to bus it, which always made me late. Nothing to do, of course, with me pushing it and catching the last possible option.

I shut the security gate behind me, turned to the footpath and froze. Parallel parked next to the apartment building was a sleek, black, dark-tinted Mercedes: Dad’s chauffeured car. I ducked back behind the gate pillar. I hadn’t had a chance to tell Stephen that Dad was back; in all my guilt and self-pity last night, I had forgotten about the threat hovering over me. Across the street, a dark-clad figure shifted in the shadows of an alcove, and I recognised my security detail. I could signal them to intervene. Or I could go back inside – Dad probably hadn’t seen me yet. I reached into my pocket for my phone, but shuffling sounded behind me, and a man laden with a suitcase and bags shunted through the gate. I had no choice but to step onto the path.

Dad’s driver came forward. I teetered for a moment longer, then waved my security detail off. This was my best chance of getting to the Taskforce, and the security people would update Donovan. The driver ushered me into the back seat, where Dad sat in the tinted gloom.

‘Hello Gabby.’

‘Hi.’

Dad made small talk as we drove north on the freeway. I answered with vague grunts and mumbles and tried not to fidget, but sweat was soaking through the underarms of my polo shirt despite the cool temperature. I wished I could take off my jacket, but I didn’t want to move. I had the strange dreamlike sensation that if I did, I would be caught, like a mouse hiding from a cat that was waiting for it to run.

After twenty-five minutes, we pulled up at the front of the school. Before I could catch myself, I shot Dad a look of surprise.

‘I thought you might need a lift to school.’ He reached across and squeezed my hand. I wrenched it out of his grasp and jumped out of the car. Perhaps he was just keeping an eye on me.

‘See you this afternoon,’ he said, waving. The car pulled away with a quiet purr.

Well, I wasn’t late now. I messaged Stephen.

Dad’s home.

He replied in seconds.

Usual gate, ten minutes before your last class ends.

***

Last period Monday was a study period, so I escaped early and waited for Stephen under a scented lemon gum, leaning against its smooth white trunk. I stared up at the long, slender leaves being tossed around by the wind, carving invisible shapes out of the overcast sky. My hands trembled. I folded my arms, tucking my fists behind my elbows. I jumped when something tapped me on the shoulder, then spun me around, put me a headlock and tackled me almost to the ground.

‘Ge-off-ee!’ My voice was muffled in my assailant’s arm. I twisted and found myself staring at Donovan’s flat expression. She dropped me into the dirt.

‘Ouch.’ I rubbed my hip as I pulled myself to my feet. ‘What was that for?’

‘You have to be vigilant. What if I’d been one of the Taskforce?’ She fished into her pocket for something.

I tried to keep the tremor out of my voice. ‘Isn’t that why I have security? Where’s Stephen? I’m not ready for this.’

‘He said to tell you “you’ll be fine”. But no, you’re not ready.’

The trembling was threatening to take over my entire body now.

‘Take off your bracelet,’ she commanded.

‘What? No.’

‘You’ll get it back,’ Donovan said, with the tone of someone speaking to an idiot. I suppressed an urge to punch her in the face.

‘My people can’t follow you into the Taskforce undetected. You’re getting a GPS tracker. It also picks up and transmits nearby sounds, but you have to keep it on, it gets muffled if it’s in a pocket or a bag.’ She held up a replica of Alex’s bracelet. It looked identical, except the engraved plate was thicker. I tried to take the original off my wrist, but my fingers were shaking and I couldn’t manage the clasp. Despite my deal to go free after the mission, I suddenly didn’t want to do it. I didn’t want to be locked in an interrogation room again, I didn’t want to face my mother and find out if she’d left me by choice and, right now, I didn’t want anything to do with Donovan or Darkhaven or even Stephen. He could have at least shown up for this. The plan was hardly a plan, and I was barely in control of my senses.

‘Oh for fuck’s sake.’ Donovan shoved my hand away and grabbed my wrist, unfastening my bracelet and slipping it into her pocket.

‘I can’t do this,’ I mumbled.

Donovan paused, her face inches from mine. ‘I didn’t catch that.’

‘I can’t do this,’ I said, slightly louder, but still wavering. ‘I’ve had enough.’

‘So you’re quitting,’ she spat, still holding the tracking replica. ‘After all the time everyone has put into you, you’re going to give up.’

I gave her a disgusted look. ‘I’m not giving up! But this, your bullying, it doesn’t work. It’s insane!’ My voice rose to a yell and the dam crumbled. ‘I won’t be another one of your guinea pigs to mess around with and leave broken in an asylum somewhere! You can’t do this to people. I will do the work. And’ – I summoned some internal courage – ‘I’ll help with the mission. But not for you. I’ll do it to keep my word with Stephen. I’ll do it to give Luci a chance to escape. Not because you tell me to. You can go screw yourself. And tell him that next time, he can come and see me himself.’

I reached out and snatched the replica from her hand. She was staring at me with an odd mix of surprise and fury. I tried to fasten the copy around my wrist, but I fumbled and it fell to the ground.

Donovan laughed coldly. ‘You’re more stupid than I realised. Stephen is using you,’ she said as she turned away. My hearing seemed even more acute than usual, and for the first time, I could feel it working with my intuition, so I understood the nuance. Her voice was loaded with repugnance and malice as she added, ‘Your mother probably doesn’t even care.’

My vision coloured, clouding over, but it wasn’t the usual crushing blackness. It was a red haze. I took two strides towards the woman, grabbed her shoulder and, winding back my right arm, spun her around and slammed my fist into her face. Blood sprayed from her nose and a split on her cheek. Without even waiting for her to respond, I swept the tracking bracelet out of the fallen leaves, tucked it into my pocket – no sense ruining my moment by trying to put it on – and stalked back onto the school grounds.

Once I was out of sight, I doubled over and cradled my surely broken hand to my stomach, thinking I really should learn to punch properly if I was going to keep hitting people. I stayed where I was until the throbbing subsided and I could feel my hand starting to heal. I was almost sorry; by the time my hand was back to normal, Donovan’s nose would be too. But at least I’d ruined her shirt with the blood.

I felt oddly empowered, although I suspected it was more to do with adrenaline than any kind of sensible reaction. I fastened the tracker onto my wrist and approached the black Merc at the front of the school at with a facade of confidence. The driver ushered me into the car. Dad wasn’t there. I slid into the backseat and tried to sit calmly, wondering if this was better or worse than a session with Donovan.

Ten minutes later, I stood in Dad’s driveway, my backpack heavy on my shoulder, fingers trembling as I shuffled through my tangled keys, looking for the metallic orange one to unlock the front door. Before I could lift it to the keyhole, the door opened.

‘Gabby,’ Dad said warmly. He looked like he was about to give me a hug, but he stopped. Thankfully.

‘Dad.’ I tried to make my voice as cold as possible. He let his face drop slightly, saddened.

This was not going the way I had expected. I’d been prepared to be strong-armed after school, and to try and make a run for it. Now, I wasn’t quite sure where I stood. Was Sean waiting inside?

What the hell. I was wearing a tracker. Someone – hopefully not Donovan – would be watching and listening. I ventured into the living room, dumped my bag in its usual spot at the end of the hallway and made for the fridge.

‘Allow me.’ Dad cut me off and waved me to the dining table. He brought over two cans of lemonade and a packet of double coat Tim Tam biscuits. I bit into one, raising an eyebrow at him as he cracked open his can. I had a penchant for Tim Tams, but it was unlike him to look at any dessert on the supermarket side of a Dutch chocolate brownie with vanilla seed ice cream. Generic soft drink was unthinkable.

He gave me a tentative smile. ‘I want to apologise. It was unforgivable of me to let Sean take you in.’

I nibbled at the chocolate biscuit. It was starting to melt between my fingertips. I had no idea how to play this.

Dad took a sip of his lemonade. ‘I’m very sorry,’ he said softly.

I knew he was being genuine. Apart from sensing it intuitively, his partaking of junk food was his way of meeting me entirely in my corner. He wasn’t asking me to come halfway with this. And I sensed he didn’t expect me to forgive him, not yet. I wanted to explode at him. Now that I knew he wasn’t about to hand me over to some guards in suits, I wanted to rant and yell and carry on about how he mustn’t ever have loved me at all, to betray me like that. But none of it was true. And now I had the problem of getting to his facility, wherever it was, and taking Stephen to Luci. My confidence waned, my anger sagged like a lettuce leaf left out of the fridge too long and I had nothing to say.

‘I usually stay back at school most days, studying until seven,’ I said eventually. ‘Didn’t Alex tell you?’ The brothers didn’t talk unless they had to, but they usually put aside their differences when it came to my education.

Dad toyed with the ring-pull on his can. ‘I haven’t spoken to him. Nancy told him about your latest Sunday incident. He thinks I upset you with university pressure.’

That explained Alex’s offer to stay at his place. I kept my face neutral.

‘I wanted to give you some space, after what happened at the Taskforce,’ Dad said.

I knew he wanted a talk, a serious one, where he could explain himself and get everything off his chest. He was waiting for me to open the conversation.

He wasn’t patient. ‘Please know, Gabby, I thought I was doing the right thing.’

I chucked the rest of the Tim Tam into my mouth, plucked another one out of the packet and pushed my chair back. ‘I have to go study.’

I left him sitting at the dining table. As I picked up my bag, the biscuit packet rustled, followed by the soft crunch of a Tim Tam. I almost smiled. I knew I would forgive him, and let him have his D-and-M. But not yet. I wasn’t that kind.

I sat at my desk in my room with my scant notes on Dickens, but I couldn’t concentrate. I thought back to my last experience at the Taskforce, wracking my brain for some clues as to where it was, how to find it again. I remembered the interrogation room and Keraun pressing a finger to his lip – Keraun. His name crashed into my mind like a tonne of bricks. How had I not thought of this before? It had been a chaotic day. But Keraun knew where the Taskforce building was. He could take me there.

I reached for my phone. Stephen might not like the idea, but his plan had largely hinged on Dad still insisting on handing me over to the Taskforce, something he was now clearly not planning to do. I made the call.

***

‘Absolutely not.’ Keraun was adamant. After a short phone conversation, he had instructed me to wait, hung up and, two minutes later, texted from the front door. I’d snuck him past Dad’s office, and now he lounged across my bed while I perched on my desk chair and pleaded.

‘Come on Keraun, we knew this was going to happen.’

‘Actually, I didn’t know. Stephen’ – he said the name with unfriendly emphasis – ‘practically kicked me out of Darkhaven after your panic thing. He barely spoke to me at the rally drive. And you’ – this time with accusatory emphasis – ‘never filled me in on this plan of yours.’

‘It’s not my plan,’ I mumbled, mollified.

‘It’s not anybody’s plan, because there is no plan. Just for you to sacrifice yourself to a cause that you don’t have anything to do with. Why do you want to do it?’ Anger edged his voice like faint thunder.

‘I said I’d help,’ I protested. ‘It’s the least I could do since I lied to them.’ Okay, that was an excuse. Although I was reluctant to say it, or even think it, in case something went wrong, there was a chance I could confront my mother and find out if she’d abandoned me, or if she really was, as Stephen insisted, a captive there. But Keraun didn’t know that.

‘You don’t owe them anything, Gabby.’

‘If this works, they’ll let me go. No fake death. No conditions.’

‘I can help you with that.’

‘Exactly! You can help. You got me out easily enough last time.’

Keraun threw his hands up in exasperation. ‘That was not easy. I can’t guarantee I can do it again.’

‘But you’re a god!’

‘Magic has limits. And it’s you I’m worried about. I could get myself in and out, but with you? Like I said, no guarantee we wouldn’t get caught.’

I shrugged. ‘But I can regenerate. What could they do? I’ll heal, if they, like, shoot me or something.’ I suppressed a shudder. Rapid healing or not, being shot was not something I ever wanted to repeat, no matter how long I lived.

‘If you get out.’ Keraun’s slender face darkened. ‘They know what you are, remember? In human terms, you’re pretty tough, but you’re not indestructible. No one is.’

His vehemence surprised me. ‘Could they harm you?’

‘It doesn’t matter. I’m not taking you there. I can’t stop you trying to talk your father into something stupid, but I won’t be responsible for this.’

I slouched in my chair, arms folded. ‘If I’m going to do it anyway, it would be safer if you came.’

Keraun looked away, defeat clouding his eyes. ‘I’ll follow behind, hoping you come to your senses and call it all off. But your dad seems to be repentant. If he’s with you, maybe you’ll be afforded some protection. Hopefully he won’t agree to take you in at all.’ He looked back, eyes yellowing as they bored into mine. ‘Did you really think asking me was going to work?’

I bit back my indignant auto-reply and sank into my calm place. No, I wouldn’t have, if I’d stopped to think and feel out the situation. I’d been too eager to avoid a difficult conversation with Dad. I sighed.

‘Fine. I’ll talk to Dad.’

‘Talk to Stephen first. Your dad’s change of heart is something they should know about.’

I nodded. ‘Tomorrow then.’

‘I’ll leave you to your study,’ Keraun said, making for the window. I wanted him to stay, but I knew he was still mad, and I didn’t want to ask. I closed the window behind him.

***

The conversation with Stephen lifted my hopes slightly.

‘This is good, Gabby. It gives you some protection. But you do need to find out if your dad believes the amnesia story you gave them. Without tipping him off.’

‘I know.’ After a pause, I asked the question that had been bothering me since Donovan’s parting remark. Since before then, if I was honest with myself. ‘Do you think Luci – my mother – will be interested?’

I could feel Stephen weighing the question in the silence. ‘She cares. She has to stay distant, as long as she’s under their control. That’s why we have to help her.’

I nodded, even though he couldn’t see me. I hoped with all my being that he was right, not just so I might have a chance to get to know her, but also so the risk would be worth it. I couldn’t get a handle on it intuitively and wondered if this was family closeness getting in the way of my developing sense. Keraun seemed genuinely concerned. With all his lightning-god-power, what could make him so upset? In the scrap of calm place that I could find, doubt was waiting, like a seed that needed a drop of water.

Stephen suggested taking a day or two to get through to Dad. I felt self-conscious of someone having overheard my conversation with Keraun, even though it had been perfectly innocent. Well, innocent as far as any feelings of friendship – or otherwise – went. Stephen didn’t mention it, which could have been good, if that meant he wasn’t bothered, or worse, if he hadn’t heard and it had been Donovan monitoring me. I shuddered. My training was cancelled for the week in case Dad was keeping tabs on me, so at least I didn’t have to face up to her yet, and the security detail was called off. I was sorry that I wouldn’t get another session in with Liam though. I could have used his calming presence right about now.