The Dream Crashers ✓

19 - Candlelight

Looking at me, he said, "I'm so sorry. It was my job to protect them and I failed."

"It's not your fault," I said, surprised to find that I didn't blame him one bit. "You're lucky they didn't try to kill you."

"They didn't think of me as a threat."

"There were too many of them," Elijah reasoned. "We're just glad you're safe. We'll just have to figure out a new plan to get them back and stop Pennington."

"How? It's easy to give a big picture idea of what we want to happen, but we don't actually have a plan or even an idea of how to start. We kill demons—that's it. That's all we've ever done," Mara said, indignantly slamming her fist on the old coffee table. "We've never dealt with anything more complicated than maybe three demons at once."

"We can—"

"We can pretend all we want that we're experienced, but the truth of the matter is that we have no idea what to do," she said.

"She's right," AJ said, shaking his head. "Pennington has money, and money is power. He has unlimited resources at his fingertips."

"We have money," Seth said.

"You have money," Elijah said.

"We have Rory."

"And he has a crazy powerful psycho daughter."

"But the one we have is more powerful and less crazy," Seth said. "Making her more valuable."

Elijah touched his chin thoughtfully, then said, "I actually believe that being crazier is more effective because she's willing to do whatever it takes to succeed, whereas Rory has moral limits. Pennington's daughter would kill us all in a heartbeat if that's what her father wants, but we're held back by our duty towards right and wrong."

Mara chuckled darkly. "Oh please, duty my ass. Just let me at her and we'll see if I have any 'moral limits.'"

I've never been one to condone violence, but if it came down to it, I probably wasn't going to try very hard to hold Mara back.

"But my point is," Mara continued, "that we can't keep avoiding him for much longer. He's been closing in on us, and it's only a matter of time until we're backed into a corner. Either we think of a plan, or we run."

Elijah shook his head. "Pennington's daughter can find us if we do. She'll just follow our dreams and figure out where we are."

"Can't we block her?" I said, remembering something Seth had said. "Remember when you tried to go back for my dad, and you said she'd blocked her mind and you couldn't get in?"

"None of us know how to do that," he said. "And I'm sure she can breakdown anything we put up against her."

I wanted to tear my hair out in frustration. Everything about this was so unfair, I wanted to cry. He was a grown man toying with a bunch of teenagers. "Do you think it's time we call the cops?"

"Half the money that funds the police force comes from Pennington Corps. Lucy told me when we... before I knew about all this." Luke had been quiet this whole time, taking in everything we were talking about with wide eyes. It was all still new to him and he wasn't sure how he fit into our mess of personalities and powers and problems.

"That makes sense," Elijah said. "He wouldn't have resorted to such extreme measures like kidnapping if he didn't have the police eating out of his hand.

"So there's nothing we can do?" I asked, voice trembling. Trying hard not to sound desperate and hysterical, I took a deep breath. "So they're just gone?"