"So we look at all the beaches north of California?" Lewis muttered, with unaccustomed bleakness. He kicked at a rock pile.
"Don't!" Anna said quickly—with unaccustomed sharpness. Lewis ducked his head.
At the end of the peninsula Kait tilted her face to the wind. It felt good and it was exhilarating to have the ocean crashing around her on three sides, but they still weren't much closer to the white house.
"Who's giving us these dreams, anyway?" Lewis asked from a little way behind her. "I mean, do you think it's them, in that house? Do you think they're in there now?"
"Let's ask," Rob said, and without warning he cupped his hands around his mouth and shouted across the water. "Hey, you! You out there! Who are you?"
Kaitlyn's heart jolted at the first bellow. But the shout had a good sound, a sound to combat the ghostly violet sky and the vast stretch of moving water. This was a big place, and big sounds fit here.
She cupped her own hands around her mouth. "Whooo are yoooou?" she shouted, sending her voice across the ocean as if she really expected someone in the white house to hear.
"That's it," Anna said, and she threw her head back and gave a long-drawn-out cry that sent gooseflesh up Kait's spine. "Whooo are yoooou? Where are weeee?"
Lewis joined in. "Thiiiis suuucks! Talk to us! Can't you be a little clearer?"
Kaitlyn choked on laughter, but kept calling. The racket caused a pair of gulls to soar upward, alarmed.
And then, amidst their own clamor, came an answer.
It was louder than their shouting voices, but it was a breathless whisper nevertheless. As if, Kaitlyn thought suddenly, a thousand people were whispering at once, almost in chorus but not quite. A thousand people crowded around you in a small, echoing room.
It shut them all up immediately. Kait stared wide-eyed at Rob, who had grasped her shoulder in an automatic impulse to protect her.
"Griffin's Pit! Griffin's Pit! Griffin's Pit!" the urgent whispers said.
Kaitlyn's lips formed the word "What?" but no sound came out. The cacophony of sound was beating at her from all sides. She could see Lewis grimace. Anna had her hands to her head.
"Griffin's Pit Griffin's Pit Griffin's Pit…"
Rob, it hurts…
Then wake up, Kaitlyn! It's your dream; you have to wake up!
She couldn't. But she could see that the pounding noise was hurting Rob, too. His face was tense, his golden eyes dark.
"GriffinsPitGriffinsPitGriffinsPit—"
Kaitlyn gave a jerk and the peninsula disappeared,
She was staring into the night sky. A lopsided moon was dipping toward the horizon. A single airplane roared slowly among the stars, red lights winking.
Rob was stirring beside her, Anna and Lewis sitting up.
"Everybody all right?" Kaitlyn said anxiously.
Rob smiled. "You did it."
"I guess. And we got our answer—I guess." She rubbed at her forehead.
"Maybe that's why they didn't try to communicate in words before," Anna said. "Maybe they knew it would hurt us. And what they were saying wasn't too clear, anyway."
"Griffin's Pit," Kaitlyn said. "It sounds—ominous."
Lewis wrinkled his nose. "Griffin's—what? Oh, you mean Whippin' Bit."
"I heard something like 'Wyvern's Bit,'" Anna put in. "But that doesn't make much sense."
"Neither does Whiff and Spit," Rob said. "Unless it's some kind of combination perfume and tobacco factory…"
"C'mon down to the Whiff and Spit; snuff it up and cough it out," Lewis chanted, giving it a catchy rhythm. "But, look, if none of us heard the same thing, it means we're back where we started."
"Wrong," Rob said and twisted Lewis's cap down over his eyes. He grinned; Kaitlyn could tell he was in a good mood. "We know there's somebody out there, and they're trying to talk to us. Maybe they'll get better. Maybe we'll get lucky. Anyway, we have a direction to go—north. And we know what to look for—a beach like that. The search is on!"
His enthusiasm was infectious. His smile, the lights dancing in his golden eyes—all infectious, Kaitlyn thought.
Kaitlyn had a feeling—wild, inappropriate, but consuming—of hope. All her life she'd wanted to belong somewhere, wanted it with a deep-down, gut-wrenching ache. And she'd always had the strange conviction that she did belong somewhere. That there was a place where she fit in perfectly—if only she could find it.
Since Gabriel had locked them into the web, she'd found people to belong to. Whether she wanted it or not, she was bonded for life to her four mind-mates. And now—well, maybe the dream was calling them to a place to belong. The place she'd sensed in the back of her mind all along, the place where all her questions would be answered and she would understand who she really was and what she was supposed to do with her life.
She smiled at Rob. "The search is on." She scooted closer to him, knee to knee, and added in a private message, And I love you.
Strange coincidence, Rob's voice said in her mind.
Amazing how he could make her feel. Safe in a vacant lot, warm in the middle of the night. Just being this close to him, being able to touch his thoughts and feel his presence, was comforting—and dizzying.
I like being close to you, too, he said. The closer I get, the closer I want to get.
Kaitlyn was floating, drowning in the gold of Rob's eyes. She began, I wish we could be like this forever—
She was cut off. Anna, who had been sitting with her chin on her knees, now suddenly raised her head. "Wait a minute—where's Gabriel?"
Kait had forgotten about him. Now she realized that the rampart of earth across from them was deserted.
"He must have gone to check on something," Lewis said hopefully.
"Or maybe he's gone for good," Rob said—and there was a sort of grim hope in his voice, too.
"Sorry. No deal." A shower of earth fell from the dirt wall, and Gabriel appeared, wearing a rather chilling smile.
And he looked—well. Refreshed. Not tired anymore.
Kaitlyn felt the shadow of alarm. She brushed it away before anyone else could notice it. Of course Gabriel was all right. There was nothing wrong with him looking so… rejuvenated. He'd had a chance to rest, that was all.