Chapter 9

They travel to a whole new world.. haha Aladdin.

“France!” I yelled loudly. Rylan jumped from the bed and stood in a defensive mode. He spun around a few times until he saw me sitting up in the bed staring at him.

“What was that about?” He snapped and put his hands down.

Quickly I shot out of the bed. I walked to the closet and started pulling out clothes. I threw them at Rylan, “Get dressed.” He held up a pair of my old pants that I had thrown out.

My eyes shot to him as I saw he wasn’t dressing. A smile spread across his face, “Do you actually think these pants would fit over my thighs?” His eyebrows raised in question. “I’ll just get my own clothes.” He put on his jeans and shirt from the day before. When he was finished he watched me, “why are you in such a hurry?”

“No time.” I said quickly and grabbed his wrist. We warped into the middle of the Oreson’s living room where everyone was eating breakfast. Jo screeched and spilled her cereal.

Everyone started to raise a fuss. Rylan put up his hands, “I have no idea what he’s up to.”

My hands shuffled under the maps and papers that were spread out across the coffee table until I found my cell phone. I flipped the silver contraption open and dialed the number I was searching for. The phone rang a few times until there was an answer. “Bonjour, résidence de Bellamont” The woman on the other line spoke. I could hear tears and panic behind her words.

French wasn’t my first or second language but I could keep up a conversation, although I hadn’t had to in many years. “Bonjour, c'est Collin Khorry, Est-ce que Josephine est disponible?” I spoke as best I could into the receiver.

Every eye went to Rylan so he translated, “Hello, this is Collin Khorry is Josephine available.” They nodded but still seemed confused.

“Collin Khorry?” The woman was confused as to who I was.

I thought a moment then remembered “Désolé, Shiloh Khorry.”

Rylan again translated, “Sorry, Shiloh Khorry.”

“Shiloh?” There was sudden relief in her voice “Shiloh, its Megan.”

“Are you alright?” There was something deep inside of me telling me to ask.

Megan paused, “Josephine, she’s been taken.”

The breath escaped from my lungs and I reached for a seat. Everyone was taken so I squatted down onto the floor. Rylan followed and stared into my eyes trying to understand what was going on. “Hold on,” I put her on speaker and put my finger over my mouth hushing everyone. “Megan, how long has she been missing?”

“She’s been gone about three days.”

Rylan gasped, “Josephine is gone?”

I nodded and Megan confirmed. “Oui, She was here when we fell asleep and when I woke in the morning she was gone. The police are looking for her but they have found nothing.”

“Megan, don’t worry. We’ll be there soon.” Rylan spoke over my shoulder.

I heard a faint smile in her voice, “Hello Rylan. I will be looking forward to your arrival. Will Zander be with you?”

“Zander’s missing too. Do you still have Madeline?”

She gasped, “Zander? Madeline is here.”

“We’ll be there as soon as we can.” Rylan’s finger slammed on the end button. He turned to me, “c'est plus grand que que nous avons pensé.”

I looked at him strangely. He hardly ever spoke French to me. “Oui,” I looked at him and he realized what he had done.

“Sorry, this is bigger than any of us thought.”

Phoenix stood up, “So where are you going? And who are you meeting?”

“Zander’s mother is missing. I think that’s where they are.”

“Then I’m going.” Phoenix started walking towards us.

Rylan squared up, “You can’t. You need to stay here and help run this.”

“Ryder can do that.” Justin stood up and watched as Phoenix walked toward us. I stood up with Rylan.

“We could use his help.” I whispered into Rylan’s ear. “You know that.”

Rylan’s head turned into mine, “I don’t want him with us.”

My hand fell onto his chest, “I know.” I looked at everyone around us. They were staring at Rylan and I. “Rylan who else is strong enough to help us find them. You know that he is the only one. If we get him then we get Justin too. Rylan we need them. Think about Zander, not me.”  

His warm breath grazed on my neck. His eyes closed and his fists balled. I knew that this was a very hard decision for him to make. In the long run he knew that Zander had to be found, but would he go to such measures as to expose me to Phoenix? His body turned a little more into me and his lips pressed against the bottom of my jaw. “Alright,” His voice cracked as he spoke and in that moment he looked more like a father than I’d ever seen before.

 

We grabbed our bags upstairs. Everyone downstairs tried to figure everything out while Phoenix and Justin would be gone. Rylan sat on the edge of the bed staring at the dresser in front of him. My hand shoved clothes after clothes into our bags. Dark circles hung under Rylan’s eyes. I zipped up the last bag and turned around to stare at him. “It’ll be alright.” I whispered to him.

“I never thought this would ever happen.”  His gaze was still straight in front of him.

“Does anyone?”

He licked his lips and shifted his head lower, “his life was so perfect. I wish… I wish we weren’t like this. I wish that Zander could just grow up and be a normal kid.”

Slowly I walked in front of Rylan. I kneeled on the floor in front of him. My arms wrapped around his waist and my head rested in his lap. Slowly his hands moved from the side of the mattress to my head. I felt is exhausted body shaking beneath me. I pulled him tighter and rested my head against his abs. “We can do this, can’t we?”

I lifted my head and crawled up his body until I was kneeling straddled over him. “As long as you and I don’t give up on each other… We can do anything.” My hand went to the sides of his face and his went to my waist. We pressed our lips into each other’s as hard as we could. My mind melted and I felt sick. Something again was pulling at the back of my mind. Our lips parted and I breathed in deeply as the world spun. Rylan looked into my eyes, “Are you alright?”

“Just fine,” I lied well. I slid off of him and stood up only to fall backwards against the dresser.  Rylan stood up and caught me by the waist letting my entire weight place onto him. 

“Shiloh, what’s wrong?”

My eyes closed and I rested my head on his chest. Slowly the dizziness and tugging in my mind went away. “I think it was just a slight case of vertigo. You seem to have that affect on me.”

My eyes once again opened to see Rylan’s concerned eyes looking down on me. A forced a smile on my lips. He tentatively returned it but kept a watchful eye. “Are you ready to go?” I nodded for an answer.

 

We warped to the alley behind Megan and Josephine’s apartment. I was apparently getting used to warping again. We carried our bags through the small alley way up to the stairs. We buzzed her room and waited for a reply. Megan’s voice came shortly after, “Bonjour.”

“Megan il est nous” Rylan spoke French more fluently than I did, and it sounded a lot better than I could ever make it.

“Avancez en haut,” Megan returned and the door was buzzed unlocked.

We started to walk up the small stair up to their top floor apartment, “They aren’t going to speak French the whole time are they, because if they do I won’t understand a damn thing that is said.” Phoenix mumbled behind us to Justin.

Rylan smirked in front of me, “La France est vraiment belle, je suis heureux que nous soyons revenus, Je n'ai pas vu leur nouvel appartement j'ai parié que c'est beau.”

I returned the smirk and looked up at him as we walked, “Quand Zander obtient le maîtrise et est d'au collège j'espère que nous serons capables de constater qu'un bel appartement vit dans pareil ceux-ci. Surtout ainsi près du centre de Paris”

Phoenix exhaled in disgust loudly as we spoke French. Rylan and I both laughed and continued up the stairs. We knocked on the door and waited about two seconds before the door was swung open. “Rylan, Shiloh, Il est magnifique de vous voir de nouveau, même à de tels temps mauvais.”

My thumb shot behind me, “These two prefer English.”

“Oh sorry, It’s wonderful to see you again even in such bad times.” Megan spoke again. Megan was obviously the father figure in the family. She was always taking care of Josephine and their daughter Madeline. She was the one who made all the hard decisions in their lives. She was to Josephine what Rylan was to me. Her brown hair was cut into a pixie style that cut diagonal across her face. Her large milk chocolate brown eyes stared out underneath layers of bangs. Her smile lit up any room she was in as she smiled her high cheek bones became more pronounced. She was a small framed woman but you could tell that underneath that she was quite feisty.

Today she wore tight blue jeans that showed off her slender legs. Her feet were bare as they usually were. She wore a white tank top covered by a rather large unbuttoned blue flannel shirt. Dark makeup covered her eyes making the chocolate spheres stand out even more. She opened the door wider and we stepped into her apartment. “This looks wonderful, a lot bigger than your last place.

“We didn’t have a kid in our last place, especially a teenager.”

I laughed, “You don’t even have to explain.”

The floors were a light wood that spread throughout the whole main floor. To our left was a large very chic kitchen. The dark green counter tops matched the walls and floors. They were set off perfectly with a tan oven and wooden covered fridge. A large dining table sat next to a large window that looked towards the center of Paris.

To our right was a large sitting room filled with large green comfortable chairs and couches. I sat my bags behind one of the couches and looked around. Directly to our left was a spiral staircase that led up into the other floor. “We combined the two apartments. All of the bedrooms are upstairs. Madeline enjoys the space.”

I cleared my throat, “Is she here?”

“Oui,” Megan paused and looked at Phoenix, “My apologies, Yes she is here. She’s been in her room the past few days. Today she has been up and down a few times.”

“Poor thing,” Rylan spoke and looked up the stairs.

Phoenix cleared his throat and I turned around, “Oh Megan these are our good friends, Phoenix Oreson and Justin Oreson. They’re daughter is also missing. We figured they could help also.”

She nodded, “I am Megan Bellamont.” Phoenix and Justin both shook her hand. When they were free she lifted her hands to the sitting room, “please have a seat.” The four of us found spots inside the room. Justin and Phoenix sat together hand in hand on a love seat. Rylan, Megan, and I sat on a dark leather couch. We sunk right in. “Phoenix Oreson, I’ve heard that names many times, but I do not know Justin.”

Phoenix spoke, “He’s my husband.”

“Aw, how sweet, how long have you been together?”

Phoenix looked at Justin and together they gauged the years, “about 14 or 15.”

Megan smiled, “That’s wonderful. Phoenix you are famous in your country, correct?”

His conceited smile was hard to miss, “I wouldn’t say famous, but well known.”

“Oui, I thought it was you.” She smiled at me, “you look wonderful.” I nodded my thanks and she sighed, “I’m sorry usually Josephine is the one conversing.”

Phoenix looked to his right. Sitting on a table was a picture of the family. He gasped and grabbed the frame, “This is Josephine Bellamont.” His eyes looked over the picture in his hand.

“She is my wife.” Megan spoke softly.

“You’re married to Josephine Bellamont? She’s probably one of the most famous heroes of our life time. She’s so beautiful.” Justin looked at the picture with jealousy in his eyes.

“Thank you, she is quite lovely.”

“She’s missing?” Justin asked carefully, breaking out of his shell.

Megan nodded solemnly, “Oui.”

Phoenix looked baffled, “Why would they take our kids and your wife. It just doesn’t make any sense.”

Megan shrugged and put her hand on my knee, “I think they confused Josephine with Madeline.” I looked deep into her eyes. There was no doubt that, that’s what happened. “They look somewhat similar now.”

Suddenly there were footsteps behind us coming down the medal staircase. Every eye in the room went behind us. Madeline was walking down the stairs. The moment I saw her I stood. Rylan was close behind me. Phoenix and Justin followed our example. Madeline blushed slightly when she saw us standing for her. Phoenix gasped behind us. It was quite obvious who she was related to.

Megan spoke softly and pointed to us, “Madeline, meet your uncles.”

Author's Note

Alright this part in the book is still being looked over. I just wanted to post it. :S