Nigel took a deep breath as he realized that saving the baby dragons meant facing down Sparrow with a small army at her bidding. “I will do my best.” He reached out and took both her hands in his. “You should tell your parents.”
“Tell them what?”
“Tell them everything. You two are very intelligent. Your videos—now that I know how young you really are—they’re just breathtakingly clever, but you’re just wee things and I’m afraid you’re getting in over your heads. These are dangerous people you’ve stumbled into. You two shouldn’t be doing this all by yourself.”
27: ENDING THE NIGHT WITH A BANG BANG BANG
Louise huddled in the back of the car, hugging Nikola tightly. She really wanted the whole night of bad to be over. The only good thing was meeting Nigel Reid, and Joy had totally screwed that up. It was one thing to hand over the whistle and tell him about Dufae’s box. It was another to show him Joy and forbid him from studying her closely. Now they had to worry that Nigel wouldn’t keep his word and pretend that he hadn’t seen the little dragon. That he wouldn’t follow his natural curiosity and try to find out their names and who they were and where they lived…
At least there was some comfort that he would be on Elfhome in less than thirty days and a universe removed from them for months after that. She wanted to believe that they’d done the right thing in trusting him so much.
Certainly if she didn’t trust someone, it was Anna Desmarais. The gala was supposed to signal the end of the war between her and their mother, but Louise got the distinct impression that it had been a false peace treaty. A new battle was about to break out, and it was going to be worse. Much worse. There was no word or look or action, however, which explained why Louise felt this so strongly. Anna had been polite, smiling, listening carefully and nodding in response.
Ironically their mother had judged their interaction with Anna successful enough to warrant forgiveness for sneaking Nikola into the gala. “I’m still mad that she cornered me for hours, but at least I knew you were safe with Tesla. Were you able to see Nigel Reid?”
“Yes, we saw him,” they said.
“He was awesome,” Jillian added in without explaining that the man had dropped everything to spend time in private with them.
Tell them everything. Louise felt as if disaster was about to crash down upon them. Nothing felt safe to say. She curled tighter into a ball and let Jillian answer questions about the face painting and other things they’d supposedly done before their mother rejoined them. Before she knew it, they’d turned onto their street and driven up to their house. They were one of the few houses with a basement garage instead of apartment. The big door sensed them approach and slid upward just as the car turned into the driveway. A light flashed on the dashboard.
“Huh,” their father said. “Security system just crashed. I hope it doesn’t call the police.”
The mother swore softly at her phone. “I can’t get it to respond.”
“I’ll reset it from the keypad in the kitchen.” Their father hopped out of the door and trotted up the steps.
“No!” The word slipped out of Louise. It tore something loose and she was flooded with sudden certainty that if she didn’t stop him, she’d never see him again. She lunged between the front seats and slammed down on the horn. In the enclosed garage, the sound seemed like a sudden loud cry of pain. It stopped too soon. She beat on the horn, blaring it again and again.
“Lou?” Jillian cried while Nikola yelped in surprise.
“Louise!” their mother cried. “Louise! Stop that.”
Louise leaned against the horn, pressing hard. It screamed warning even as shots rang out upstairs.
“Warning!” Tesla barked in his deep Japanese man voice. “Intruders! Home security has been breeched. Response code five! Secondary target requires assistance.”
The car doors all opened and Tesla sprang out. Louise followed.
“Louise! Jillian! No!” their mother shouted.
Sounding like a grizzly-sized dog, Tesla went snarling up the steps.
There was an odd roar in the kitchen and a scream of human pain and another gunshot, this one sounding farther away.
“Louise, get back in the car! George!”
A moment later her father had swept her up and was carrying her back down the steps.
“Nikola!” Louise shouted and then she realized that it was the robotic dog responding, not her baby brother. “Tesla, cancel response code five! Nikola! Nikola come back!”
Seconds later, she and her father and Nikola were all trying to fit into the front seat of the car. One of them leaned against the horn and it blared and everyone shouted in fear. And then the car was traveling backward out of the garage, horn still blaring, Louise, her father and Nikola all flailing in the bucket seat.