Anada (Book #3)

The News

Okay, now what do we do? We have to stay here at the house in order to stay in contact with Reina. There's nothing to do except wait.
I was on edge about how Reina was doing on her mission. It had been about five hours since she had left with Colten and Robin. They were probably just arriving at Leon Escapade's place by now.
Neil currently had his laptop lying on the dining table. Next to it, a deep slash was embedded in the woodgrain of the table. The gash was eight inches long, about half an inch deep and, and three quarters of an inch wide.
I had likely placed it there myself when fighting Colten and Robin.
Wait, didn't I jump off the table once during the fight?
Actually, everything was a blur when I had fought them. I really didn't notice anything or anyone other than the two enemies who were attacking me. If someone had had a gun pointed at me, I would've never noticed.
The fact that I had caused such damage on hard furniture meant that I could do twice as worse on an actual living being.
Shaking the thoughts from my head, I wandered over into the kitchen where the guys were attempting to cook. Neil was failing miserably, Elias was doing pretty good, Westen seemed be giving the spatula a strange look, and Alex was searching for fancy recipes on Google.
The first smile in a while spread across my face. I've seen them do great in maneuvers during a mission, but cooking was their biggest weakness.
Seriously, Westen had put an entire egg in the frying pan without cracking it first.
I step through the doorway, and a huge wave of relief seems to wash over them when they see me.
"Anada, please help us." Elias begs.
I pin my wavy blond hair back, and take over. First, I show Westen that he needed to crack an egg before placing it in the pan. Then I pointed toward the sink and Alex washed the dirty dishes.
I decided that whatever they were planning on eating wouldn't do for today's lunch. But, I needed their help.
Since I couldn't speak, I grabbed a notepad and gave everyone a certain job in the kitchen.
In thirty minute's time we had a decent lunch. I had not been able to say a word, but I got my ideas across to them. Hopefully, my voice would make a comeback soon. It was hard enough having to point at every cooking tool I needed.
The whole cooking situation helped me take my mind off of Reina for a while. Though whenever I thought of her my stomach would drop and then I worried about her even more.
Elias seemed to notice this and places a hand on my shoulder, "You need to do something to keep you busy."
I give him a look that lets him know that I want to stay here at the house incase Reina contacts us.
He interprets my expression, "You have your cellphone. If she calls, we'll call you."
Without a moment's hesitation Elias says to me joyously with a smile, "Hey, we ought to go do something together! We haven't done anything lately."
How can you think of going out? I'm worried sick about Reina. By the time she returns I won't have any nerves left.
Elias either doesn't understand what I'm thinking or is still persuading me, "It'll be okay, Anada. Come on. I know a good place in Charleston where we can go watch a movie. If something happens, Neil will call us."
I thought for a moment. If we stay here and something did happen with Reina we only would be notified faster than if we were not here at the house.
Elias's offer was very tempting though. I wanted to get out of this house for a while. Apparently, everyone could clearly see this fact.
Elias adds in, "Reina wouldn't want you sitting around like this, right? Anada, you know there's nothing to do here. Come on. Let's go have fun. Or did you forget what the word 'fun' really means?"
I roll my eyes at him and finally give in to his persuasions.
_________________
An hour later, after attempting to make myself look decent, I meet Elias in the front yard.
He already has his sleek black Mustang parked in the gravel driveway that made its way around the gurgling water fountain. The faint sound of music was coming from the rolled-down windows of the car. Before I can make it to the Mustang, Elias runs around to the passenger door and opens it for me.
Once our seat-belts are buckled we're on the road. I wasn't sure where to though. All I knew was that we were headed north toward Charleston.
Forty minutes later, I find us in the parking lot of the Charleston Aquarium. Only a few other cars were parked where we were. It's November and not many people take a vacation during this time.
We walk to the entrance. I stare in excitement as Elias buys the tickets at the entrance. I might be eighteen, but the kid inside me has never left.
"You've been to an aquarium, right?" Elias asks as we push open the doors of the huge building.
I take my eyes off everything as I tell try telling him, "Yeah, but it was years ago when I still lived at the orphanage. It wasn't this aquarium either."
I'm thankful that Elias can lipread my words. If he couldn't, I don't know how I could communicate with him.
He continues in a hushed voice, "I wasn't sure if you'd really care for coming, because you know... since you're a water dragon. You must see ocean animals like these all the time."
We walk through a glass tunnel with fish swimming directly above us. Hammerhead sharks, sea turtles, colorful tropical fish, groupers, sting rays, and a many other fish swam around in the crystal blue water. A coral reef inside the aquarium had plants swishing left and right as if dancing to slow music.
"No, I usually don't see fish like this off the coast. There's some interesting fish out there, but I haven't seen any like these where we live. It's because these are mostly tropical." I try telling Elias when I look back toward him.
I don't think he caught everything that I said, but he got the idea. He just smiles sweetly and nods as if he knew exactly what I was saying.
Where's my voice when I need it? I probably look crazy trying to talk to him with no sound coming from my mouth.
"Maybe we'll have a mission in Australia one day. Then you can go visit the Great Barrier Reef." Elias finally replies with a smile.
The trip to the aquarium helped to keep my mind off Reina. Whenever I thought of her, Elias would somehow know what I was thinking and would immediately point out something to divert my attention.
We probably spent two and half hours there. We would have stayed longer, but Elias told me that we had to go buy groceries or we wouldn't have anything for supper that night. Plus, the drive back to my house was almost an hour's drive, and someone had to cook too.
By the time we returned to my house it was six o'clock. I was grateful that none of the guys had tried cooking like they had earlier.
As soon as I'm done carrying groceries inside, I go find Neil to see if there was any news on Reina. When Neil sees me coming toward him he answers my question before I can attempt to ask it. I am both relieved and nervous when he tells me that Reina hadn't let us know anything yet.
She either hasn't called us because nothing bad has happened or because something bad has happened.
I worried about it the whole time that I was cooking. I still had a bad feeling about the mission, but it wasn't as strong as earlier.
As if on cue, Neil's phone rings. The loud ringtone is heard throughout the entire house. It only rings twice before Neil answers it.
"Reina, did everything go alright?" Neil asks hastily.
Half a minute passes before I hear him say, "Do you think he'll change the plans since you know them?"
I realize that the others are listening as intently as me. I glance over to see Elias washing the same spoon for the third time.
"Well, we'll prove him wrong. Just get here as safely as possible, okay?" Neil says to Reina.
A few seconds later Neil ends the call, and walks into the kitchen. A cold expression covers his features.
"What happened?" Alex asks him worriedly.
He sighs, "Leon caught Reina, but he let her go. She found out what the plans are, but Leon doesn't think we can stop him. So he let her go thinking that she would be of no harm to him. It's a miracle that nothing worse happened."
So he thinks we're too weak to stop his plans? I'll definitely prove him wrong!
Alex says, "That seems very off. Why would he let her go, even if she couldn't do any harm? She either doesn't know the real plans or this is some sort of trick."
I agreed with him. I would've added a word or two myself, but my voice was still on a vacation.
It was about that time when I heard an unfamiliar vehicle drive into the driveway outside.