by Jordan Dane
Those who’d been drugged were slowly waking up. Lucas’s sister Rayne took care of them. She asked for something to do. She needed to keep busy. Lucas and Gabriel had volunteered to search for the missing. They’d only come back once. Lucas had found an infinity bracelet in the rubble of the explosion and brought it back to give to Kendra.
Raphael.
His name was the last message she sent to all of them. Luke knelt in front of her and kissed her cheek. She clutched the bracelet in her hand and rocked.
“You should know, we may never find him. That explosion took out too much,” Lucas whispered and ran a hand through her hair, but she couldn’t look him in the eye. All she saw was Raphael.
“We’re still searching for survivors. The twins are making their way here, a few others.” Gabriel stood near her destroyed garden and spoke to everyone. “Where the explosion collapsed the tunnel, we’re looking where we can, but the damage is too extensive and...we’re not safe here. If some of the missing were taken during the attack, we may never know what happened to them.”
Kendra felt the futility of what they were trying to do—the harsh reality of it—especially with a clock ticking. The Believers would be like vultures. They wouldn’t leave them alone, not when they had an advantage. Any truce had come because of Gabriel. She didn’t know how long that would last.
She looked down at the black leather bracelet she held tight in her hand. She understood that the safety of the living had to come first, but her gut twisted at the thought of leaving their dead and missing behind. That felt wrong. Another bitter injustice heaped on the growing pile of her failures. Now Raphael had become one more.
In that moment of realization, she almost lost it, but when a sudden hush settled over the commons, Kendra turned to see what everyone looked at and it broke her last will. She stood on shaky legs with her lips quivering.
With his eyes locked on Kendra, Raphael walked into the commons in stone-cold silence, his face etched with an agony she suddenly felt, too. Each step looked as if it pained him. A dark stain of blood glistened on his jeans. She couldn’t tell if the blood was his, but something far worse gripped her by the throat. If she had any shred of hope left in her for their future, it died.
Raphael carried the dead body of Benny.
Chapter 20
As the children in the commons cleared Raphael’s way to Kendra, one by one they touched the dead boy’s head. Rafe carried Benny in his arms as if he were only sleeping. He looked as if he’d collapse. When he stopped in front of her, Kendra cupped a trembling hand on Benny’s cheek.
His skin was cold.
She wanted to take the blood away, to breathe life into his little lungs and to hear his heart beat softly again, but that would never happen. She thought of his short, tormented life, made worse by those who should have loved him—and now this.
When she saw Rafe still wore his bracelet, she tightened her grip on the one in her hand—the gift he’d given to Benny. Raphael saw what she held in her hand. He stared down at her with his jaw clenched tight. Rage and pain tortured his face.
She had no words to console him.
“We c-can’t...l-leave him here.” Raphael choked on every word. “This isn’t our h-home anymore.” He shook his head and stared down at Benny’s face. “I don’t know how to bury him.”
Raphael collapsed to his knees, clutching at Benny. His tears came in sobs as Kendra held him, with little man’s body between them. Rafe had been hurt, both inside and out. His connection to the hive must have been severed when he got injured. That was why she lost him and thought he’d been killed. When she’d first seen Raphael walking into the commons—alive—Kendra felt a rush of joy that he hadn’t died. After she realized who Rafe carried in his arms, she knew he would have gladly taken the boy’s place.
Death had claimed more than one small boy.
“I did this. I left him. I should have been more careful.” Raphael let everything out. “They followed Benny back here. He was so scared.”
“No, you tried to warn me about staying off their radar. I didn’t listen.”
Kendra heard footsteps behind her. Until she heard his voice, she didn’t know who it was.
“What happened to this boy...to the home you built here, it’s on them. Grieve for Benny, but don’t blame yourselves for his loss.” Gabriel Stewart didn’t hide his feelings over what had happened.
“I have a place we can bury him, where we can honor his life.” When he talked of Benny, Gabriel only spoke loud enough for them to hear. “My mother is buried there.”
“Where is it?” Kendra asked.
“Not far. I’ll take you. Anyone who wants to come is welcomed.”
“Will we be safe there, at least for a night?” she asked. “We have wounded. Raphael is hurt, too. He’s so pale. I think he’s lost a lot of blood.” She turned to Rafe, but he looked dazed. If he was wounded, he didn’t care anymore. She had to care for both of them. “We need medical attention, and the children need to eat. They need...”
She stopped when Gabriel knelt beside her and Raphael. He put his hands on their shoulders.
“I know you don’t know me, but I want to help. You don’t have to do this alone.” He looked down at Benny and touched his head. “You need time to heal...your bodies and your souls. Please let me help.”
With tears in his eyes, Raphael nodded and Kendra followed his lead, but she couldn’t think straight. She heard the words come out of her mouth about Rafe and the wounded and food for the kids as if someone else spoke them. She sounded stronger than she felt.
Who was she fooling? She was a kid with nothing and now she had even less.
Burbank Command Center
Hours Later
O’Dell had spent the morning in a hospital E.R., explaining how he’d shot himself in the foot. It got reported to the cops. The church would not be happy. No matter how many times he’d replayed that moment of sheer panic in his head, he still felt like an ass. The snakes had vanished in the blink of an eye. Gone! He’d imagined the whole thing, but he had no idea how. Blinded by muzzle flash, he screamed at the burn of the gunshot and the pain that jolted through his body.
He bled like a stuck javelina.
He didn’t wait for Boelens to report in. He took off before he bled to death. Now, hours later, he had messages on his encrypted cell phone. The operation that had started out as a piece of cake had turned into an unexplainable mess—an embarrassment that could cost him more than his job. Boelens was on his way in to Operations. He’d be there any minute. Until then, O’Dell avoided the phone his new boss had given him. The man had been calling every five minutes.
What the hell would he say?
When Boelens reported in, he was no help.
“What happened to you?” The man stared down at O’Dell’s bandaged foot elevated on a chair and the crutches that leaned on his desk.
“You don’t remember?” he asked. When Boelens shook his head, he said, “Intense frontline action. I took a bullet for one of your guys, but I’ll live.”
Boelens narrowed his eyes.
O’Dell pushed him on what happened. He got nowhere. That was good news and bad news. Bad that he’d never know how things got screwed up. Good that he could blame everything on a guy who didn’t remember, one of the privileges of being in charge.
After O’Dell grilled his man, Boelens didn’t add anything worth knowing, except for one thing he insisted on. He had a message to deliver to the head guy. Boelens wouldn’t back off about it, either. The only reason O’Dell decided to make the call was that he had every intention of throwing Boelens under the bus.
As Boelens sat in front of his desk, O’Dell pulled out the encrypted phone, his secret hotline to the big guy. His call got answered on the first ring.
“Where have you been? Why haven’t you returned my phone calls?” Listening to the strange mechanical voice on the other end of the line gave O’Dell the willies.
“I got shot
. Took one for the team, but I’m okay. Thanks for asking.”
“I didn’t.”
O’Dell ignored him.
“My man Boelens says he has a message. Says it’s for you...from those kids.”
Silence. It took the man so long to reply that O’Dell thought he’d been disconnected.
“Get Boelens on the phone,” the man said.
“Not that kind of message. He needs to hand it to you personally, he says.”
O’Dell heard a heavy sigh on the line and cringed as he waited to hear what the man would say.
“I’ll send a car, but you’re coming, too.”
The call went dead. The man didn’t give him an option. He’d ordered him to come. O’Dell hoped he wouldn’t be taking a one-way trip.
Two Hours Later
From the observation window, Alexander Reese watched as three of his men ushered O’Dell and Boelens into the stark room below. They wore black hoods, a preventive measure to keep their location secret. Alexander didn’t need to see O’Dell’s face to know which one he was. He limped in on crutches.
This time he hadn’t bothered to drug them. He didn’t have the time. Once he made the arrangements, he contacted Fiona. After his bodyguards left the two men alone, she was the only one with him behind the two-way mirror when he put on his headset and spoke into the mic.
“Pull off those hoods and tell me what happened.”
Fiona stepped closer to the glass and kept her eyes on the men as they sat in two metal chairs. Both men fidgeted in their seats and couldn’t keep their hands still as they stammered nothing of importance.
Fiona couldn’t hide the faint smile on her face, something Alexander had expected. He wished she knew how to gloat without taking pleasure in the failure of his mission. When the two men had nothing new to say, Alexander stopped them.
“This does not please me, gentlemen.” He clenched his jaw, trying not to look at Fiona. “What is this personal message you were to deliver, Mr. Boelens? You’ve kept me in suspense long enough.”
“I got it right here.” The man pulled a folded piece of paper from his pocket.
“Is there anything you can add to what I’ll see?”
“I didn’t look at it. Figured you wouldn’t want me to. It’s personal, you know?”
“Then leave it and go. I’ll be in touch,” he said. “Hoods on, gentlemen.”
He waited until O’Dell and Boelens were taken out before he sent Fiona to retrieve the message. When she returned, he got a closer look. Odd. One side of the paper had a detailed map on it, a schematic of an architectural structure that appeared to be in downtown L.A. It didn’t take him long to realize that what had been drawn on the back had been the real message. He recognized the work, but what startled him was the face staring back.
His face.
His shocked expression made Fiona curious. When she looked over his shoulder, she gasped.
“Who did...?” She didn’t finish. She’d seen the artist’s work before, too. “How could he know about...you? We’ve been so careful.”
Fiona had been stunned, but as she got a closer look at the details in the sketch, she finally saw the worst of it. She held up the drawing to compare the background and took a closer look at him.
“How did he know the exact location you’d be...and what you’d be wearing?” she asked.
Alexander Reese gritted his teeth as he grabbed the drawing and stared at it again. He had no intention of answering her.
Bristol Mountain
Three Days Later
As Gabe expected, Uncle Reginald opened his home to the Indigos. His uncle had actually been touched that Gabe asked for his help. Even though many were offered their own rooms, the kids chose to sleep together. They were used to it. They shared beds and crashed on floors, anything to avoid being alone. Nights were especially hard. Gabe walked the halls and heard soft sobs in the middle of the night or heard the others comforting a kid that had a nightmare. They took care of their own.
Too bad they had to.
His uncle called in favors to get medical attention for the wounded and to see that Benny would get a proper burial. He made the arrangements with great care for privacy. If anyone understood the need for secrecy when it came to Indigo children, Uncle Reginald did. Protecting them came naturally to him. It was his nature.
Frederick did his part to make their unexpected guests feel at home. Beyond Gabe and his uncle, the only one who could actually see the dead butler, without him “popping” in, was Raphael. Frederick made it his personal mission to remind Rafe how special he was—every day, in every way. He took care of the boy and watched over him, even in his fitful, tormented sleep.
With looks that could kill when he was awake, Rafe refused to acknowledge the ghost butler, but Gabe had his money on Frederick.
After Dark
Rafe hadn’t spoken to anyone since he’d carried Benny into the commons and said what he needed to Kendra. He did what they told him, but he really wasn’t there. Blood loss made him weak, but losing Benny killed any feeling he had left. Even when Kendra changed his bandage on the bullet wound in his side—after one sorry bastard trumped his baseball bat with a bullet—he had nothing else to say. A thunderstorm had moved in and stayed. The storm’s rumble and unrelenting rain magnified his grief and made him feel more alone than ever, even though Kendra was with him.
Sprawled on an unmade bed, wearing only jeans, he let her work on him. She thought she could hurt him, but that wasn’t possible now. He felt dead. Kendra told him stuff about the others that he never really heard, until she said...
“We’re burying Benny tomorrow.” She gave him the time, but it never stuck.
He shifted his eyes toward her. He wanted to tell her how he felt, that he should have been the dead one, not Benny, but nothing came. The final act of burying Benny in the ground didn’t feel real. When he had the ability to see the dead, why couldn’t he feel Benny anymore? Why couldn’t little man haunt him, even for a while? Maybe he didn’t want to know the answer.
Eventually Kendra left him alone in a room big enough for all of them to sleep in. He never even realized she was gone. All he could think about was Benny. He didn’t know how he would say goodbye to him tomorrow. People would expect him to say something. He had no idea what that would be. Words meant nothing now.
“Forgive the intrusion.” A man’s quiet voice came from nowhere. Almost a whisper.
When Rafe turned, he saw Frederick. He glared at the ghost but didn’t say anything. Seeing the spirit only reminded him of how much he wanted Benny to haunt him...forever.
“It’s okay. You don’t have to say a word. I only came to let you know where Benny is. Before they seal the coffin, I thought you might...”
Rafe struggled to sit up. He had only one word for Frederick, a word that surprised even him.
“Yes.”
* * *
Rayne felt restless, especially when the punishing storm had ramped up its assault on the estate. The sound of rain and thunder made her nervous, but that wasn’t all that made her anxious. After she helped feed the kids and saw the youngest were in bed, she realized she hadn’t seen Gabriel in hours. He hadn’t eaten with them.
She searched the dark corridors of the estate and looked in his room but didn’t find him until she saw light coming from the Serenity room. When she pushed the massive door open, the room glimmered in fierce beauty. The sound of thunderous crashes vibrated the amphitheater as blinding and violent bolts of lightning catapulted across the dome. The projection mirrored the raging storm outside to touch an audience of one.
Gabriel sat alone. He didn’t move. He stared up at the ceiling that bathed him in vivid colors. When she sat next to him and slipped her hand into his, he shifted his beautiful eyes to her. In that moment, she forgot to breathe.
“Rain reminds me of my mother.”
Through the rumble of the storm, his voice captivated her as if it was the only sound in the room.
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“She loved it, in all its forms. The magnificence of a dark storm, a gentle spring rain. It never scared her. My mother respected its power to cleanse and renew.” He squeezed her hand. “She shared the love of rain with me and taught me to dance in it.”
He smiled without any real joy. Something darker had a grip on him.
“My mother died in her car. It had been raining.” He heaved a sigh. “She’d run some errands and was coming to pick me up at a motel we were staying in. We were taking a break from the circus, visiting the Grand Canyon, actually. But it wasn’t the bad weather that killed her. It was my father.”
“How? What happened?” She clutched and kissed the back of his hand.
“He’d found out where we were and had sent men to take me. She knew what that would mean, that she’d never see me again. She couldn’t let that happen.” A tear ran down Gabriel’s cheek. He didn’t wipe it away. “She called me from her car. I barely had time to pack our stuff and hide. She’d been right. They came, but we had a plan to meet up later. That never happened. I had to hear about her death and see it on TV.”
“That’s awful. I’m so sorry.” Rayne knew what it felt like to lose everything. “How was your father connected to the accident?”
“It wasn’t an accident. State troopers said she’d been run off the road. Her vehicle had paint from another car on her rear bumper. They shoved her off a cliff and didn’t stop. As far as I’m concerned, she was murdered, Rayne. The investigation is still open with no suspects. My father had a convenient alibi, but that doesn’t mean he didn’t hire it done.”
Whatever rift had started with a father who didn’t understand his son now carried the bitterness of a lifetime of hate and suspicion. Gabriel stared into the flashing images over his head and breathed deeply until he could speak again.
“So rain carries memories of my mother. The way she lived, the way she died. I came here to feel her again.”
