Chapter Eighteen

"What should we do now?" Jason asked as he got into his jeep. "I'm all for staying and fighting the good fight, but I'm pretty sure my grandfather wouldn't appreciate the extra damage to his property."

Selena gave Jason a bemused smile. "You need to say goodbye to everything you know, start this vehicle and drive." She said it so bluntly, it caught him off guard.

"If I do that, I'd never see my family again, would I." It wasn't really a question. He already knew the answer, so it wasn't surprising when she only opened the door and got in the passenger side. Her silence was the only confirmation he needed.

Jason put the key in the ignition and turned it, bringing the jeep to life. He looked at his house, the one he had spent years in ever since his parents died. He might not have seen his grandfather more than a handful of times, but it was enough to know how much he'd miss the old man.

As he backed out of the driveways, the headlights touched the house, giving him a fading view of his home underneath the trees.

As soon as the house was out of eyeshot, he felt his pocket buzzing. He was only half surprised to see a name pop up on his screen. Though he was leaving his home for the last time, he knew he should at least let someone know he was leaving. Someone who knew his grandfather, so he could find a suitable replacement.

"I know what you're planning." Officer Trusky's voice came from the phone as Jason put him on speakerphone. "While it's a good idea to leave and put some distance between you and the people after you, I don't think you should go alone."

"Are you volunteering?" Jason accelerated to the proper speed on the county road his house had been on. The darkness blurred around him as he focused on the road ahead. "I doubt you'd have any problem keeping up." He left the bait out for the man to catch. He knew Trusky was smart enough to read between the lines.

"You are a level five at best." Trusky sighed. "You are just entering this life, and I don't think that girl who's connected to you knows enough about today's levelers to help guide you. Maybe if it were a few thousand years ago, you'd be in good hands."

"So, this entire time you've been one of them too."

"If you mean that I'm a leveler, yes. But I'm not one of the ones after you. That is an organization that I've been keeping off of your property. They have been after that book you absorbed for the better part of a thousand years."

"A thousand years." Jason repeated. "You couldn't find a book for a thousand years?"

"It's no ordinary book, Jason. As I'm sure you know." Trusky said, not uncondescending. "The book can only find the one it's after, it cannot be found by anyone other than the keeper, or the guardian."

Jason looked to Selena who only nodded, looking out the window at the mirror. "How do I know that you aren't one of them?"

"I'd think you would know me better than that." Trusky said.

"I've known you all these years, yet I've never seen you do anything other than your job. At least until I saw you look around my house without so much as a candle to light it."

"That's what gave me away." Trusky sighed.

"That's what you allowed to give you away, I think it's when you decided to test if I was what you thought I was."

"You haven't answered me yet."

"I guess. As long as you can keep up." Jason sighed and hung up the phone. He didn't need to look behind him to know that Trusky was there, instead he took an exit to an interstate.

"Have you decided where we're going?" Selena put her arm out the window, the breeze sweeping her crimson hair behind her.

"Does it really matter?"

"A destination will at least make things more manageable."

"So we need to find a hotel?"

"Hotel?"

"An inn," Jason smiled. It was still difficult to imagine that this girl who looked to be an AC/DC rocker was from a time before hotels existed. "Someplace we can stay the night, or a week without having to buy or rent a home."

"We had inns where I'm from too, I just wasn't familiar with the name hotel." She smiled back. "I spent many nights within an inn. The jovial music and roast sets the spirits aflame, especially when washed down with a pint of ale." Her eyes lit up at the thought.

"That sounds great, but we aren't back in the middle ages anymore." Jason smirked. "They'll have room service, and a swimming pool, but if you're talking about the inns that I've read about in books, you might be disappointed."

"Oh." Her smile dwindled slightly. Jason gave her a sideways glance and saw sad eyes and a wistful smile. Now he was truly able to tell the woman was out of her time.

"Though the times have changed, maybe there'll be something new that you'll enjoy here." He smiled and tapped her on the arm with a knuckle. "It can't be all bad."

Jason allowed Selena the quiet of contemplation as he continued down the road. With Rukil's warning of someone stronger coming, he wanted to put as much distance between the college and himself as he could. It'd be an uncomfortable drive, but he intended to go through the night an into the next day, as long as his mind would allow him.

The jeep and a following sedan made their way down a dark road with no direction planned. Jason knew from this moment forward, nothing in his life would ever be the same.