Chapter 9
Awareness begins to dawn in everyone's eyes. The mere mention is enough to blow away some fog, but there must be some serious telepathy induced in us all. The image of Jesse keeps flickering in my head, and if I don't try hard enough, I begin to forget what I am thinking about. I try to reach out to him telepathically, but it's hopeless when I can barely remember his voice.
"Okay, think," I command. "When was the last time we saw Jesse?"
Sasha pulls at her head, forcing herself to concentrate. "I've no idea. I know that we know a Jesse, but I can't remember who he is."
"Dark hair, alien eyes, extremely annoying?" I remind her, as well as trying to get the image to stabilize in my head. "Likes kicking puppies for fun and intruding on peoples' individual thoughts?"
She looks at me, and my stomach drops to see that it doesn't seem to be ringing a bell.
"Eric?" I ask, desperate. "You remember, right?"
"Of course I remember we have a friend named Jesse," he says, thinning his lips. "But all I get in my head trying to recall memories is a big fuzz."
I massage my temple. This is not good. I guess I can break through this block easier being a telepath too, but if they can't, this is going to be a serious problem.
Did Jesse put this block on his own? Or did Alex Narasov follow us onto that flight and do this? Maybe Aunt Nelly found another telepathic.
I pull at my hair, frustrated. The possibilities are endless. I swear Jesse got off the plane with us. He can't have gone far, can he?
"We've got to find him," I insist. "Regardless if he walked off on his own or was kidnapped. Regardless if you guys can even remember what he looked like, we've got to find him."
"Wait, wait, wait," Vee says. "How do we know if we do find him? I don't know what he looks like."
I resist from screaming. "Good point. Uhm, Sasha, how good are you at drawing portraits?"
She shrugs. "Mediocre."
"Grab that pencil," I say, pointing to the short nub someone must have lost on the floor.
I shut my eyes, begging the image to crystallize. I get hints of dark blue, and brushes of plump pink. Angles and planes and cheekbones.
"Alright," I say. "Start with a heart-shaped face..."
Ten minutes later, we have a messy sketch of what I think Jesse looks like. Sasha did the best she could with a blunt pencil, but there's only so much you can portray with just gray colors.
"We have all night--or morning, whatever--until the flight to New York," Eric says, studying the grayscale face. "I'm sure we can find one guy, right?"
"I certainly hope so," I mutter. I clear my throat, say louder, "Meet back here at dawn. Don't go beyond security check-in. He can't have left out there."
Courtney and Vee head off together, murmuring something about wanting food.
"You guys go on ahead," I tell Sasha and Eric. "Pass me the laptop."
"You're going to search alone?" Sasha asks. She hands it over.
"Three groups are better than two," I say, distracted while logging in. "But I have something to do first."
As they leave, I try to calm my inner panic. My lungs are one shallow breath away from hyperventilating. What if we can't find him? Do we just leave? We're going to have to. We can't sacrifice everything. What if in another few minutes, the telepath doing this reinforces their block and we forget about Jesse completely?
I shake my head furiously. It won't come to that. Right now, I need to concentrate.
The keyboard clicks loudly, echoing in the near empty gate lounges. I log into the email Sasha had created for me back in the House, and it takes a while to remember what exactly she had set as the password. The breath leaves me in one whoosh when I see the little, blinking (1) in my inbox.
Please don't be spam, I plead, biting on the inside of my cheek.
My eyes go to the sender immediately: talking.crab321@gmail.com.
I choke back a sob, having to stuff the back of my hand into my mouth.
A tear rolls down my cheek, and I swipe it away hurriedly, practically breaking the mousepad clicking into the email with no subject heading. The body of the message is only one sentence.
Home is where the heart is.
P.S. How lame does Son of Eve sound? Can't I get a better title?
So Sebastian knows. I'm torn between laughing and sobbing. Between wanting to scream one incoherent noise or put voice to all my frustrations. I do none, and keep my face completely neutral after allowing myself a dire snort.
Digging my nails into the side of my thigh, I slam the laptop shut and place it on my seat as I stand. My family is alive, and I know exactly how to begin tracking them down. But we have more important matters at the moment.
I flick my wrist, obscuring the laptop from public eye with telepathy. I'm still kind of hating this ability at the moment, but you've got to admit its useful.
I set off for the back of the airport, beginning my search for an aggravating boy.
***
Two hours later, I've still had no luck. I run from end to end, searching corner and crook and crevice.
The more empty spaces I come across, the smaller the airport gets in perception, and it lessens the options of places Jesse could have been dragged off to.
Another hour later, my legs are aching despite my Nephilum abilities to never tire, and I've run into Courtney and Vee twice, who are smartly chanting his name so they don't forget. I take a path farther away from them so we cover more ground, and yet the place is as quiet and Jesse-less as ever.
Four hours have passed since I started searching, and I am beginning to doubt if Jesse even ever existed.
Of course he does, I chide myself. He's become one of your best friends over the course of a few weeks. What kind of an idiot forgets their own best friend?
Out of nowhere, I wonder how Lily back home is doing. She had been my only best friend for so long. Then I just left with no explanation. Well, I was taken, but she didn't know that.
And now the same might be happening to Jesse.
Somehow, I find myself by the boarding counters at the front of the airport, and I've gone beyond the passenger-only zone despite my own warnings to the others. It doesn't matter anyway. No one notices me once I decide I don't want them to see me. I gaze up at the giant arches at the top of the airport, like backward triangles jutting out from marble. There's only silence, occasionally a low murmur from the workers stuck with the 5AM shift. The automatic doors that lead to the outside of San Francisco, California are right there. Strangely, they open, even though there's no one there. It's like they're trying to tell me I can walk out. I can walk out into the cold and run and run and run and run.
What I used to think was freedom is right in my clutch. But it's not freedom anymore. Being unconfined doesn't mean being free. Being unconfined on my own would only mean loneliness. Without any of my friends and without my family, it will be surviving, but it won't be living.
I stare at the doors, clutching my arms to rid of the rising goosebumps. My back is pressed against a cold wall, and slowly, as frustration crawls up my throat and forms a lump, I slide down with my butt on the cold, linoleum ground, hugging my knees to my chest.
"This is hopeless," I mutter.
Perhaps Sasha or one of them have him already. But I know--somehow I know--that's not true.
I chew my lip, resting my chin on my knees as I think. I need to consider that Jesse may have been taken. It's likely the Cambions caught up with us, but where did the telepathic mind altering come from? There aren't a lot of options. He wouldn't just walk away from our mission, would he? He knows knows how important it is that we stop this war. He knows we are the only ones that can stop it.
Then again, how well do I really know Jesse?
I wish more than ever I had pestered more insistently about his nightmare earlier. Maybe it is connected, and if I force myself to consider the other option that he walked off on his own: then that may have been the fuel. And I'm afraid of that. If he doesn't want to be found, we won't find him. We can't waste any time getting to the council--minutes wasted are people killed. We'll have to leave without him. We'll have to carry on without him. I'll have to carry on without him.
Why is that such a big deal? my mind whispers nastily. You've got Sasha. Eric.
It's not the same, I argue. Every member is crucial.
Every member is crucial? my subconscious sneers back. Are you sure? Or do you have deeper feelings you don't want to admit to? That you can't shut off even when you can't remember-
Woah, okay. I board up that train of thought before I can snipe with myself any further. I am not going there. Not now.
The sun will be rising in less than an hour's time. I have to find him before then. I raise my gaze at the automatic doors that have opened again, letting in frigid, icy air. But what if he's left the airport? It's a big world out there. He's as good as gone.
And me sitting here is doing nothing.
I know I would be capable of picking myself up and carrying on and never seeing him again.
But I don't want to.
I must have sat there dwelling for too long, because the next thing I know I blink and realize I zoned out. Then there's a clicking in my head, and it's like someone has switched on a fan. All the fog has blown away. The rain in my mind stops and though the puddles are still there, everything is hard to maneuver through but clear.
Shoes come into my peripheral vision, squeaking as they stop.
"Hey."
The voice is soft and familiar. My head snaps up, cold relief flooding me from fingertip to toe.
I leap up and tackle him with a bear hug, gasping. Jesse's arms wind around my waist immediately in response, and all I want to do is thank the angels and demons he's here. And then, the hot anger comes.
"You ass!" I exclaim, pushing away. I shove him without thinking, and my strength sends Jesse toppling backwards. Quickly, I grab his wrist before he can fall. "Where did you go? I thought you were kidnapped!"
He tries to talk, but I'm too busy cursing, and shoving his shoulder.
"Dickwad! How dare you!"
And somehow I end up hugging him again, afraid he'll really be a mirage and disappear again.
"Ariel," Jesse wheezes. "Can't breathe."
"Good!" I snap. "You don't deserve to breathe comfortably."
And infuriatingly, he laughs.
"Don't be mad," he says quietly. "I came back."
I walk towards the wall again and sit down, motioning for him to do so too.
"Came back from where?" I ask, fury still tinging my voice. "Why did you leave in the first place?"
Jesse stares off into space for a long while, although in reality it must have been less than a few seconds. Finally, he turns towards me.
"My parents came for me."
It is such a shock, I am rendered completely speechless. I lean against the wall, slightly lightheaded and anger completely forgotten.
"Your parents?" I whisper.
He smiles wryly. "And my little brother."
And that's the moment I feel horrible for calling him a dickwad.
"Where are they now?" I ask.
"I told them to leave."
I get even more lightheaded. "You told them to leave?"
Jesse plays with a piece of string coming off his sleeve collar, looking away.
"Well," he says, so lightly even I strained to hear. "I was actually about to go with them."
I snap my mouth shut this time before I can keep repeating what he is saying like an idiot.
"But then I realized how selfish that would be," Jesse continues. "We're a team, right?"
"I didn't know you were awake for that," I say, as if that were the most important thing to address right now."
He tilts his head slightly, confused. "I wasn't. Don't you remember the boat ride?"
Despite myself, I grin. "Right. I guess we do talk about being a team a lot." Then, "It wouldn't be, you know." I hurry to clarify, as if he doesn't know, "Selfish, I mean."
"Yes, it would," he replies simply. "You don't have to lie."
"Okay," I say. "Maybe it's not most selfless thing ever, but they're your family."
"And we've been involuntarily handed the task of saving the world. I think that's more high priority."
I resist the urge to laugh to myself. Maybe I do know him after all.
"Besides," he adds when I stay silent. "I can't leave you guys."
It's not my imagination that the 'guys' was added on rather hastily. I try keep myself from feeling too self-important, smoothing down the edges of my lips trying to turn into a smirk.
"Where are they now?" I ask softly, gazing off into the outside--the trees, the roads, the sky--that is slowly beginning to lighten.
Jesse shrugs. "Going back home. They live here again." He turns to me. "They've joined the rogues."
"Is that how they found you?" I frown.
"Technically. Turns out, Alex Narasov is my long-lost uncle."
I swivel to him, eyes wide. "No way."
"Yep. I've never met him in my life, but apparently he and my dad exchange information constantly. I didn't even know my dad had a brother."
Jesse shifts and brings his knees up, resting his arms on them. "That's why he directed us to California. Contacted my dad immediately. They were waiting the moment we got off."
"Huh," I said, jutting out my lip in thought. "No wonder it looked like he recognized you."
I stop. "And who's been the one blocking our heads of memories?"
He snorts. "That would be my dad. He thought it would be easier for me to leave if no one remembered me."
I humph indignantly. "I remembered you."
"He didn't count on another telepath. Actually, he didn't count that I was traveling with the Daughter of Eve at all. My brother even asked if the Nephilum side of you has tried to kill me. They all wanted to meet you, you know."
I laugh, leaning over to nudge his shoulder with mine. "Maybe one day, hey? I guess I'm a famous celebrity."
"More like an infamous celebrity."
"Hey!" I protest.
He lays his head on my shoulder, yawning. "Where's everyone else right now?"
"Searching for you," I say. "They couldn't even place your face before, you know. But they searched anyway."
"I guess my dad didn't count on that either," he says. "They cared enough to remember."
"He means well," I say softly. "Besides, they'll remember everything now. I felt it click in my head as he stopped it."
"That's good," Jesse snorts. "Wouldn't want to go on a deadly mission with four others who don't remember what I look like everytime I turn away."
"That would be disastrous," I comment. "We should get back. I told everyone to meet back at sunrise."
"Do we have to get up?" he groans. "I'm so tired. My beautiful face does not do fatigue."
"I just spent four hours looking for you," I snort. "Don't even complain."
"Yeah, but you're like an energizer bunny."
I shove him off as he laughs at his own analogy.
"Alright, alright," he agrees. "Let's go."
Picking myself up, I dust the dirt off my clothes and offer Jesse a hand to get up. Instead of using the helping hand to get up though, he grins and tugs me down. I yelp.
And I fall right into his lap.
I roll my eyes, trying to get back up.
"Not funny," I mutter. My heart is thrumming like the wings of a mockingbird.
Jesse laughs, and I turn to glare at him, but my expression falls slack when I realize how close we are.
There's no life-threatening situation going on now like in the basement. There's only us in our own bubble, paying no attention to the world, as his eyes flick down to my lips. I lean closer. He leans closer.
And then a screeching noise blares out like a warning siren.
I jerk away in alarm, scrambling up to prepare for an attack. Jesse jumps up quickly as well and scans for a threat, prepared to use a nearby chair for a weapon.
"What was that?" I hiss.
He scans the boarding area. "It's coming from..." He trails off.
When we realize it was only a machine turning on, I begin to giggle uncontrollably. He's laughing too from how bizarre this is, and soon we're both clutching our stomachs in hysterics.
"Okay. We really should be getting back now," I manage to say.
Jesse nods, yet we are still both laughing every so often for completely no reason.
I lead the way back, trying to figure out what paths I had taken. As we walk, he throws an arm around my shoulder casually.
I'll be lying if I said my insides aren't all warm and fuzzy.