The Immortal Defenses Series - Destined

Chapter Eighteen

After staying at the beach house, Roman and Demetri's house felt like a resort. When they walked through the huge front doors and into the living room, it felt like they were walking into a hotel lobby. The large living room was about the size of the whole main floor of the beach house; their footsteps even seemed to echo slightly. Alexia had half expected them to get ambushed inside the house; no doubt Astro would not have been pleased about their trip to Union Headquarters. But nobody was there; the huge house was empty except for them.

Their short time away had allowed small amounts of dust to settle on everything in the house, including Alexia's ajar suitcase. Seeing her bags sitting there reminded her of home. Home, oh no, she thought. How long did they say their parents would think they were gone for? She tallied how many days it had been since she was away from home, and realized that they were expected home today.

Flying past Cheri and Ellie who had followed her, she shot downstairs to dramatically yell at Demetri, "My mom is going to flip!" Her voice was much higher than usual, it made Demetri jump.

"You know she thinks you're visiting your Dad," he casually replied. "Don't scare me like that."

"Yeah, and I am supposed to be back today, I can't go home, we still have to find out where the book is."

Demetri didn't reply for a moment, clearly counting the days they had been away. His facial expression told her that she was right, and that she was supposed to be home today.

"What if she calls my dad?" Alexia continued, freaking out. "She probably already has called my dad! Oh no, I am so dead. Cheri and Ellie's parents are probably freaking out, too. We need to leave right now."

Demetri put a hand over her mouth to keep her from yelling more. Roman, Ellie, and Cheri had joined them downstairs now and the girls both looked anxious about what their families would say.

"First of all," Demetri began, "we are not just giving up on finding the book because your family expects you home." Alexia gave him a threatening look, daring him to try to stop her. "We can all go see each of your families; you can make them believe whatever you want them to believe, so that we can do what we need to do."

"He's right," Ellie chimed in. "We need to find out about the prophecy before we can go back home."

Alexia hung her head. She didn't want to keep lying to her mom and she didn't want her friends to have to lie either. She tossed a lock of blonde hair over her shoulder and sighed.

"Whatever, let's go then. I don't want her to call my dad and then end up having to fly out to California to make him believe that we really are there." Alexia stomped back upstairs only to return to the living room dragging her packed suitcase down the stairs. When she received several curious stares and Demetri stepped forward to block the doorway, she said in a frustrated tone, "I just want to get some different clothes. Don't worry, I'm not planning on taking off. Jeeze."

"I didn't think you were taking off," Demetri said in his cool voice, trying to hide that he really did think she was going to take off. He turned to Ellie and Cheri, "Grab your bags if you want to change clothes, and let's get this over with."

∞

Alexia stood on her front doorstep with Demetri at her side. In case anyone had followed them back into the city, it was decided that nobody would be alone at any time. She could hear the buzz of the television and knew her mom would be sitting in her favorite chair, no doubt shoving down a bowl of ice cream while waiting for Alexia to return home.

For some reason, Alexia felt uncomfortable about just walking into her house, considering how things had changed so much. Home was not where her room or her stuff was; home was where Demetri was. She decided it would be too weird to knock on the door, so she turned the familiar handle and walked inside what used to be her home.