Cross Council Read online

  Chapter 1

  Aimee woke to the sound of muted voices. She was in bed, but not her own. If it was her own bed, she would have heard the fan and she would have heard Ziggy snoring. She also would have smelled the honeysuckle and felt her quilt scrunched down by her feet.

  This was not her bed. And she didn’t know these voices. Normally voices in her dreams were inside her head, not outside. The heated discussion reminded her of her parents, but it didn’t sound like them. Still, when someone was arguing, it was always safer to stay out of the way. Aimee feigned slumber as she listened to the hushed argument.

  “This is your mistake.”

  “We can’t do anything now. We have to leave.”

  “We can’t take her.”

  “We can’t stay. We have to leave now.”

  Another voice entered the room.

  “They are coming, Vodu.”

  For a moment Aimee felt eyes upon her. She tried to keep her breathing steady.

  Vodu, the man with the elderly voice spoke. “We go.”

  There was a slight swooshing sound and then only two voices remained.

  “You have placed me in an awkward position,” the one that must have been Vodu said. “You had better hope we have the opportunity to return and bring this child home.”

  “One child will not be missed, Grandfather.”

  “Perhaps if that child was you, Salvan, it might be true.”

  Aimee heard Vodu’s voice move away from the bed. “You had better prep her for the journey, and then get to your chamber.”

  The swooshing sounded came again, and Aimee knew she was now alone with the young voice, Salvan.

  Still groggy from sleep, she floated in that ethereal land where dreams continue to reign as the light of clarity slowly grows brighter. As her senses returned, fear settled in. Her hands trembled but at least they seemed to be free. She was not bound in anyway.

  “Why did you chase that animal away? It was all I wanted. Now you’ve gotten me in trouble.”

  Aimee cringed when she felt a hand trace up her arm.

  “But you are much more fascinating than the animal,” Salvan whispered.

  Aimee knew she had been kidnapped. From the conversation, it sounded like this Salvan guy had been after Ziggy, but only God knew why. He wasn’t a show dog or anything. He had more knots than fur.

  Whoever these strangers were, they appeared to be stuck with her and were going to take her along to their destination. Their destination! Where were they taking her?!

  With a quick resolve, Aimee decided that she was not going to let it be that easy for them.

  Aimee grabbed the sheet and lunged off the bed before Salvan could react. She charged towards where she thought she had heard the door swishing open and closed, but there were four impenetrable white walls around her. Oh, why hadn’t she sneaked a peek for just a second, long enough to look at her surroundings, she thought as she almost crashed into a solid wall.

  She whirled around and saw her captor for the first time. He was young, maybe a few years older than her, with blond hair and blue eyes, and dressed in some sort of odd grey uniform. No. Silver. It was made of a strange material that glistened like the paint job on her old bike. Her captor cocked his head and watched her in a motion that reminded her of Ziggy.

  “Intriguing,” he said as if she was a bug under a microscope.

  “Let me out of here!” Aimee’s shout surprised even herself and she felt her breath coming in gasps as it did every time panicked. “This is all just some big mistake on your part, so just let me go home.”

  Salvan grinned. “I’m afraid we’ve started on our journey so that’s not possible at the moment.”

  Breathe, just breathe, she told herself.

  Aimee shoved her shaky hands in the back pockets of her jeans to keep them from shaking and tried to calm down. “Look, you don’t have to take me back. Just let me off on the side of the road somewhere. I’ll find a way to get home. I won’t report any of this. Just let me go.”

  Salvan looked past her shoulder, jerking his chin up slightly. “Drop you off on the side of the road?”

  Aimee turned to follow his glance. A strangled sound launched from deep in her throat. She just couldn’t breathe past it. What was it that her guidance counselor had told her? Aimee sucked in a breath through her nose. It was enough. It was just enough to let loose one massive scream.