The Descendants Series Vol. 2

Chapter 15

“Nope,” he said, and revved the engine.  “Now hold on.”

Before I knew it, we were flying down the road, heading away from Headquarters.  I instinctively tightened my hold on his waist and buried my face in his back.  But a few seconds later, I leaned back just a little, letting the wind whip through my hair, laughing, and looked around.

We were out of the area with all the tall buildings and toward where the houses and shops were.  I turned my interface back on and looked at all of the buildings as they flew past us.  The first few shops were just for groceries or clothing.  Actually it seemed like most of them were for that. 

But before I knew it, we were in the area where the houses were.  They were really big, bigger than any houses that I’d seen before.  I got all the information on them as we rode by:  who lived in the house, the people who were on the staff and the floor plans of it. 

We turned off onto what looked like a long driveway.  Kade slowed down as we reached was looked like a huge garage.  He drove up to it and cut the engine.  But right when I started to unwind my arms from around him, his hands came down on mine so I was still holding on to him.

“Kade, we should go in,” I said quietly. 

“Just wait a moment,” he whispered.

“Okay, fine,” I said, and held on to him, leaning my cheek on his back.

His hands just held mine for a moment, and then pried them off of him, only to thread his fingers through mine.  And then he was holding my hands in his against his body. 

I could feel his heart beat against my arms as he brought my hands up to his face.  It was beating fast, just like mine was against his back.  He held my hands to his cheeks for just a second, and then let me go.  He got off the motorcycle and started up a pathway.  I just sat there for a moment, and then got off and followed him. 

The pathway led up to the front steps of a huge house.  It had to be about three stories tall and the front was made of stone.  There were huge windows on each level of the house.  When I walked up onto the porch, Kade was standing there waiting for me. 

“This is beautiful,” I said, stepping up beside him. 

He just shrugged.  “It’s home,” he said, not looking at me.  He turned then, and opened the door.

As we stepped inside the foyer, I looked up at the two staircases that wound their way up to the second floor.  To the left and right were what looked like a dining room fit for twenty and a ballroom with high ceilings and a crystal chandelier.  There was a large circular table right in the middle of the foyer with a huge bouquet of flowers. 

Kade led me around the table and into the living room that looked as large of the common area of Division Sixteen.  And off of that was a huge kitchen, where four people were moving around.  Three of them had on white coats while the other – the only woman, probably in her mid-forties – had on a silvery-gray wrap dress.  And when she turned toward us, her face lit up. 

“Oh, Rayney!” she said, and came rushing toward me.  And when she was a few feet away, I finally recognized her.  It was Kade’s mom, the woman who had been like a second mother to me when I was younger.

She really hadn’t changed since I saw her last, which was about ten years earlier.  There were more lines on her face, but other than that, she looked exactly the same.  Her light blond hair was straight and cropped to her shoulders.  Her dark brown eyes gleamed with tears as her arms went around me.  I was about three inches taller than her now, which felt strange seeing as the last time I’d seen her I’d barely came up to her chest.