Inferno (#2 Destroyers Series) Read online

  At least one thing had gone right, though. Kenna didn’t seem to have noticed her superhuman strength when she’d torn the fence apart. Janelle couldn’t come up with a cover story for that one. Well, nothing that sounded convincing.

  Time to break the silence. “Hey. Want to use my phone to call your school and let them know you’re out here?”

  Kenna didn’t look up. “They probably won’t notice I’m gone.”

  Janelle let out a breath. Wow. This girl had some self esteem issues. She probably got treated like crap by half the student body at her school and ignored by all the rest. Those nasty girls back at the viewing area, the ones she called the Kissies, had pretty much confirmed that.

  “At least call your parents,” Janelle said, digging in one of her pockets for her phone. “Tell me your number, and I’ll dial it in for you. This is one of those weird touch-screen phones that’s hard to figure out. Not that you’re dumb or anything.” Great. The last thing Kenna needed was to think she was calling her dumb.

  Janelle didn’t dare tell her the real reason she couldn’t let Kenna mess with her phone. It wouldn’t be too good if she snooped around on it and found out she was in charge of a race of people able to turn into hurricanes just by touching the ocean. There were too many messages on there about which typhoons were late this year, what areas needed their droughts relieved, and who was too scared to transform and holding everything up as a result. That might give too much away. It was bad enough she had no way to explain the suit.

  Kenna shook her head and kept her gaze glued to the floor. “My parents are always at work. They own a grill company. So they don’t know yet. I’ll be fine.” Her voice faltered at the end. “You can call the school, I suppose. It’s probably a good idea. Otherwise, the cops might go hunting for me and it’ll be on the news.” She swallowed. “Just don’t call my parents. Please. I wasn’t allowed to go on that field trip.”

  Poor girl. Her dad wasn’t even that strict or distant with her growing up. Sure, he’d made her get straight A’s or else, and wouldn’t let her stay out late with friends. And he’d kept her Tempest status secret from her all her life. But being banned from field trips and not even being reachable in an emergency? Ridiculous.

  Luckily, the nurse had a phone book on hand. Janelle’s mind wandered as she flipped through the pages for the high school. Nothing came even close to normal about this day. Nothing. Something was up with that eruption. And Gary’s hand. There was that old woman they’d seen disappearing behind that rock, too. Not typical vacation stuff at all.

  Janelle got through to the principal and let her know what had happened. Yes, Kenna was in one piece but a bit shaken. Yes, a teacher could pick her up. Problem One solved. Janelle tucked the phone back in her pocket and made her way back to where Kenna was sitting and practically rocking herself.

  “Hey,” she said. “Look up. Everything worked out OK.”

  Kenna did and leaned back against the wall. “I’m…I’m just stressed,” she said. “If my parents find out about this, they’ll kill me.” There was something else in her words, though. Something deeper. But Janelle couldn’t figure out what it was.

  “Understandable. I’m a bit stressed myself.” Yes, very much so.

  Janelle rubbed her temples. Gary had better get back here soon. The Elder Council would throw a fit if she was gone too long. That, and she probably had about eight million messages on her phone.

  As if on cue, her phone buzzed.

  Kenna jumped as if jarred out of a trance. Heads turned towards Janelle. Great. Now she was getting even more stares. She couldn’t answer a business call right in the middle of the emergency room. Too dangerous. Janelle scrambled to turn it off and succeeded.

  Even with the phone silent, Kenna still stared at her. “Sorry if this is rude. How come you’re wearing a business suit?”

  Janelle was very afraid of that question. What to say? Hey, you can’t wear jeans when you’re leading a race of human hurricanes? No, that wouldn’t work. “I—”

  “I’m back.”

  She looked up. Gary stood there, hand wrapped in white gauze. His gorgeous hazel eyes made her forget all about Kenna for a second. It was perfect timing. Now, at least, she’d have some time to make up a fake story.

  “Are you okay?” Kenna asked, rising from her chair with wide eyes. She gulped as if his answer would decide her fate.

  Gary nodded as a forced smile crossed his features. Uh, oh. Something was wrong. “Yeah. I’ve got a second-degree burn on my palm from…from touching the hot door handle on the van. I have to take some antibiotics so it doesn’t get infected.” He held up his mummified hand and winced. “And some painkillers. Luckily they don’t have to do any surgery on it or anything.”

  Kenna slumped as if she were relieved. Janelle was right there with her. It wasn’t too serious. Good. Now Gary could actually enjoy the rest of his vacation and she might even get some time alone with him on the beach tonight. Well, if she was lucky. She hadn’t had any alone time whatsoever with him since right before she’d unexpectedly taken on her new job. They barely even got to hold hands or kiss.

  But still, she couldn’t let Kenna go without figuring out more about this mess. A strange feeling came over her. Like this girl had something to do with it all. She hated—and hated—to have to throw away her Gary time, but Janelle couldn’t report this to any authorities and have them take care of it. She was the authorities. Wow, maybe her dad really had beaten that whole responsibility thing into her.

  Not to mention, Kenna seemed to be in need of more friends. “Question. Want to come to my vacation house later on tonight? Since you’re in the area? We’re having a bonfire.”

  Gary shot her a look that said, are you crazy? Janelle ignored it. She might be sixteen, but she was still boss. Besides, Tempests married regular people all the time. They would’ve gone extinct a long time ago if they hadn't. So what was wrong with inviting one to a party? Assuming, of course, that Kenna was a regular person. Her friend Leslie would be coming too, and would land at the airport in a couple of hours. Though she already knew their secret, of course.

  Kenna sat up straight as if a spotlight had landed on her. “Me?”

  “Yes. It’ll be fun.” This girl needed to get out more.

  “Sure,” she said, glancing at Gary and back again. “Just let me know where you’re at and I can ride my bike.”

  Janelle wrote down the directions and phone number for her—her vacation home was right on the beach—and finished just as a tall man in a suit came bursting through the emergency room doors.

  Kenna backed away. “That’s my History teacher. They must’ve sent him to pick me up.” She accepted the paper with the phone number and directions. “What time?”

  “Seven,” Janelle said. It was as if her invitation had injected some life into her.

  Kenna turned around and waved as she left with her teacher. Wow. She was an entirely different person now.

  Gary cradled his injured hand again. “Uh, Janelle?” He lowered his voice and leaned close enough for a surge of electricity to race across her skin. “Everyone at the bonfire’s going to be a Tempest. Except Leslie. That’s kind of hard to hide.”

  Janelle pulled him closer to the door and farther away from the waiting area. “I’ll make sure everyone covers up their birthmarks.” She eyed Gary’s arm. The bottom of his gray spiral marking—the same marking all Tempests had—stuck out from the bottom of his purple sleeve. “I don’t think she’ll buy the explanation that we all have the exact same tattoo.”

  “Leslie knows about us already. This girl doesn’t,” Gary said as they stepped out into the mid-afternoon heat. “And I have to tell you something. That girl was hot.”

  Janelle glared at him as she snatched the keys from her pocket. “What?”

  “No, no. Not that kind of hot.” Gary shook his head, flushing red. “I mean literally. When I grabbed her arm, I felt like I put my hand on a grill. No joke. That’s wher
e I got this burn.” He stared at her, all serious now. “Something’s not normal about her.”

  They reached the van and Janelle clicked the remote to unlock it. Click. The sliding door came open like a mouth. “You sure you didn’t get burned some other way?” Stupid question, but she had to clear that up.

  Gary started to climb into the van, but stopped short. “Uh, look.”

  “What?”

  He jumped back down. “She was sitting right there. Check out the seat.”

  Janelle scrambled over to his side and felt her jaw fall open. They had a problem, all right.

  There were two black scorch marks on the edge of the seat where Kenna had been sitting. In the exact same shape as a pair of hands. In exactly the same place she’d been grabbing the seat the whole time they'd been driving to town.

  Gary let out a breath. “Believe me now?”

  * * * * *

  Janelle reached right for the aspirin as soon as she got back to the vacation house. She was in Headache Land, and bad. Things were happening too fast.

  Great. Kenna had fire powers or something. Did she know about it? The girl at least suspected it. Why else had she seemed so nervous back in the waiting room? Maybe she’d even just found out about them. Janelle could relate to that all too well. She’d gotten less than a week’s notice that she was supposed to transform, and would’ve had no notice whatsoever if her overprotective dad had succeeded in keeping her from the truth up until the last moment. Only Gary had prevented that from happening.

  Janelle leaned against the marbled counter and covered her eyes against all the sunlight pouring in through the skylights. The whole thing in general was still too much to process. She’d been living a normal life—a lie—just two months ago. Surely she was asleep and would wake up any moment now.

  Gary closed the front door walked into the kitchen, his footsteps echoing through the room. He took the bottle of aspirin as soon as Janelle set it down. “What do we do?”

  She looked around at the inside of her vacation home. Sunlight beamed down through the skylights and lit up all the leather couches and the cream-colored carpet. The Pacific Ocean sparkled down at the end of the beach. She could never go swimming in it, though. Her last swim had a side effect. Bad. Not to mention, if she transformed now, the Elder Council would come down on her for changing when it wasn't her turn.

  A pit opened inside her and a little voice floated out.

  Murderer.

  Janelle’s stomach lurched. She shook her head to clear it away. The hole inside her closed as fast as it opened.

  “You okay, Janelle?” Gary appeared at her side and squinted at her.

  “Yeah.” She turned on the sink and filled her glass of water.

  Halfway down the beach, her dad and her uncle Hank were dropping wood into the fire pit. Elise, an older woman from the Elder Council, rolled a huge grill out from behind the patio with ease. One good thing about being a Tempest was that you had unbelievable strength. Well, only when you were near the ocean.

  Everyone seemed so at ease except for them.

  Janelle swallowed the aspirin and the entire glass of water, which felt good going down her dry throat. “Well, this is something big. If that Kenna girl isn’t human—”

  “Trust me, she isn’t.” Gary held up his bandaged hand as his hazel eyes grew in size. “You’re lucky you only grabbed her sleeve, or your hand would be like this, too.”

  “Okay. You win. She isn’t. Question. What is she, then?”

  Silence hung in the air. Seagulls cackled outside and the grill’s wheels squeaked as it rolled across the sand. It looked like they were both thinking the same thing.

  Janelle answered her own question. “Kenna has something to do with that volcano.”

  Gary set his bandaged hand up on the marble counter. “Agreed. Why else could that crack have opened up right where she was standing? Yeah, the thing's been erupting for thirty years, but Janelle, you might want to call a meeting about this.”

  His voice dripped with seriousness. Always count on Gary to be as blunt as possible. She knew why.

  For the first time in Tempest history, they had met another kind of walking natural disaster.

  * * * * *

  Kenna now had celebrity status.

  She was now the girl that had survived standing over a volcano, not the girl that nobody noticed. She’d only had to endure—no, experience—a couple of hours of school by time Mr. Jacozy brought her back, but during that time she’d been interviewed by five different groups of people in the halls: the drama club, half the football team, the art kids, and a bunch of other people she didn’t know. Everyone wanted to know. What did she see? How had she moved in time? Wow, she was going to be on the news next.

  Kenna prayed that last bit wasn’t true. Her parents might work as much as possible, but they still caught the news if they could. Even if it was just the stock market they paid attention to, the chances of them overhearing a story about her were way too great.

  Then, something happened and her worries flew right out the window.

  “Hey. Want to get some ice cream tonight? I’ll buy,” Carlos asked as the bell rang to end Algebra. He smiled. “So long as you tell me what happened.”

  Kenna blushed as her heart started to race. He was. He was really asking her out. It was about time—they’d been friends ever since being assigned partners for a science project back in the fifth grade. He’d made all her long hours of parent-required studying so much better by sticking pencil erasers up his nose and making her laugh, or by making origami out of all the math homework she hated.

  “Yes, I’ll go.” The words flew out of her. Maybe the eruption was turning out to be a pretty good thing after all. But then something else crept into her mind. Janelle’s invitation to her party. The girl had pretty much saved her life, so she’d better attend the bonfire. “Wait. I have other plans tonight, but I’m sure it’ll be okay to bring you along. How about a bonfire?” Janelle wouldn’t mind another person coming along. She seemed pretty nice and outgoing.

  “Sure thing.”

  Kenna could float away as she made her way outside and to the bike rack. Everything would turn out fine after all. Gary’s burn—it could’ve been from anything.

  Around her, students talked about the eruption that she’d barely survived. Questions flew at her from all sides, from freshmen to seniors and everyone in between.

  “How’d you survive?”

  “What happened?”

  “I heard Natalie wet her pants. Is that true?” That question came from one of her numerous dumped boyfriends, a guy from the basketball team she forgot the name of.

  Kenna smiled. “I hope so.” It was awesome, actually having people acknowledge her existence for once. She could get used to this.

  At last she could tear away from the crowds. Janelle’s bonfire wasn’t until later, but she had to finish her homework or her parents would explode. She had band practice, too—but she could forget that just for today and go right home for once. Besides, she hated band. It was just another thing her parents made her do to keep her super busy.

  Plus, she needed to decide what to wear for her date. Butterflies raced through her stomach. Her first date, ever. “I’ll tell you guys all about the eruption at lunch tomorrow. Meet me then.”

  Kenna pulled away from the crowd and unlocked her bike. One of the worst days of her life had turned into one of the best days of her life. Even the Kissies had left her alone this afternoon. They stood way over on the sidewalk, backs turned to her and huddled around a gray sedan. Natalie leaned into the passenger window, probably hounding some boy again. Or maybe she was doing it to hide. All Kenna had to do was tell someone she’d pushed her over the fence and she’d face suspension. The thought made a grin creep onto her face. Maybe, just maybe, she could do that tomorrow.

  Houses, lawns, and palm trees flew by as she pedaled back to her house. She let the breeze whip across her face as tingles of excitement raced
under her skin. There was no way on earth she’d be able to concentrate on her homework. Maybe she’d wear her purple shirt with the sequins on it tonight, the one her mom bought her for the pageant she’d forced her into last year.

  The old woman from the viewing area stood in the middle of the street ahead.

  Kenna’s heart stopped. She slammed on her brakes so hard her bike screeched.

  She was only about fifty feet away, stooped, and wearing that brown shawl over her shoulders. Deep wrinkles cut into her brown face and black hair spilled down the front of her shirt.

  There was something else, too.

  An orange flicker in her eyes. A fire.

  The breath caught in Kenna’s throat. No way. This woman couldn’t have survived the eruption and walked all the way here in two hours. That couldn't really be fire in her eyes. It was an illusion, a reflection of the sunlight for sure.

  The old woman raised her hand and waved again, smiling. The flicker in her eyes grew brighter.

  Kenna looked around the street. Dead. A swing tilted back and forth in the breeze. Water gurgled in a drain nearby. Nobody else was around that the old woman could be waving at. A cold pit formed in her stomach. The last time she’d seen this woman, she’d nearly been killed by lava.

  Her legs turned to mush. This wasn’t right. The old woman had survived walking through lava, and that hadn’t been her fever making her see things. Janelle had seen it, too.

  Kenna slid her feet back onto the pedals. It might be a very good idea to make herself scarce.

  She turned, sucked in a breath, and rode away so fast the bike’s tires whizzed beneath her.