“Maybe. Elizabeth was his wife?”
Elizabeth looked up at that, made a grunting sound along with what appeared to be a nod. More drool dripped from her scarred and bloodied lips as she croaked out a sob.
“He did this to his wife? What did he do to her to make her that way?”Addison said.
Elizabeth roared and slanted her head, studying Joseph’s dead body. Cael watched her, unsure what she would do next, but he certainly didn’t expect to see tears running down her bumpy brown cheeks as she stood over Joseph’s corpse.
“Are you okay?” Addison asked.
“Yeah, you?”
She nodded as the glass-shattering roar that escaped from the beast startled them, prompting them quickly to their feet, ready to run.
Cael tugged Addison. “Can you burn her?”
“What? No! This isn’t her fault, Cael. She’s a victim in this, just like us.”
Cael stood as Elizabeth approached, growling and snarling. He shook his head. “That may be but I think someone forgot to tell her that.”
“I can’t just kill her. She’s not to blame.”
“Addison, if you don’t kill her I will. She just murdered my father.”
Addison glanced over at Eric. Siana held Cael’s father—her husband—to her chest, stroking his head, crying.
“We need to get her away from Joseph so we can get the crystal from him,” Addie said.
“Can’t you use your powers?”
“I tried. I think whatever that glow is coming from under Elizabeth’s flesh is preventing me from getting a clear connection with it.”
“We'll need to distract her.”
Elizabeth growled again, sounding much like a gorilla this time. She took another step toward them as Cael reached for his gun, but before he could get it out, Elizabeth was on top of him, tackling him to the floor. Cael thought he would die from the smell alone and when he dematerialized from underneath her, her heavy body slumped on the cement floor. She shook her head, confusion evident on her distorted face, looking under and through her legs for Cael’s body.
Cael pointed his gun at Elizabeth.
“Wait! Don’t shoot her. Let me try to talk to her.”
“Seriously?” He gave her an incredulous stare. “Okay, but if she makes one wrong move I'm not going to think twice about shooting her.”
Addison took a couple steps toward Elizabeth and stopped a few feet in front of her. “Elizabeth?” she prompted softly, but the creature ignored her. “Elizabeth, please,” she tried again. “I know you must have loved Joseph very much. It’s hard to lose someone you love. Believe me, I understand how difficult this must be for you. I recently lost my own fiancé. He’d been caught up in some of this supernatural stuff, much like you, and he disappeared. I had no idea if he was alive or dead. Although we weren’t married yet, like you and Joseph, I loved him very much and I didn’t think I’d ever be able to go on without him.”
Cael listened to Addison, saddened with what she was revealing. His heart broke for the pain he must have caused her while he’d stayed in Bora Bora all that time, never contacting anyone, letting anyone know he was alive, never knowing there was someone like her to contact.
“He would have given his life for me,” Addison continued and Elizabeth stopped stroking Joseph's hair at that statement, looked up at Addison and growled, making her stop in her tracks. “You see, we had a very special bond, like you and Joseph must have had. In fact, at times I think we felt as if we were actually one soul. The worst part about all of it was that when he disappeared, something else awful happened. He lost five whole years of his memory, which included his relationship with me. So, when he came home, he had no recollection of what we’d once shared. I know firsthand how it feels to lose someone you gave your love to, trying to accept that they won’t be there anymore. Elizabeth, please. We can be friends.” Addison reached her hand out, palm up, coaxing the grotesque creature to come to her. “Come with us. I know we can help you. Maybe we can help each other, you and I. We won’t be able to bring Joseph back to you, but you and I can try to fill the emptiness of that cavern deep in our hearts.” Elizabeth stood and before Addison had a chance to move, the creature lunged at her. Cael shot off a couple of rounds from his gun but Elizabeth didn't go down. He wanted to shoot again, but Addison was in the way. He dematerialized and re-appeared at Addison’s side, clutching her firmly in his arms before flashing Addison away from Elizabeth’s grasp. When they re-materialized several feet away, Elizabeth seemed disoriented, stunned with what happened. It took her several seconds to regain her balance as she focused on them again and the heavy awkward steps she took in pounded against the floor.
Cael shot off another couple of rounds from his Glock but they didn’t even penetrate her rough skin. “Addison, a little help here, please.”
“I don’t want to kill her.”
“Well, she wants to kill us, so do something. Now!”
Addison held out her hand and flames ignited in her palm. She threw the fireball at Elizabeth, catching her in the arm. The monster howled with pain but continued toward them.
“More, Addison. Harder!” Cael yelled. “They have to penetrate her skin more. Aim for her chest or head.”
Addison threw another fireball at Elizabeth, hitting her smack in the chest. The creature stumbled a little but caught herself and continued toward them. Addison threw an additional ball of flames and then another, but they seemed to simply fizzle out as they hit Elizabeth’s thick exterior. “It’s not working. The flames don’t penetrate her skin. It’s like she’s wearing a fire retardant suit or something.”
“Can you use one of your other powers?”
Addison swished her arm through the air and Elizabeth went flying across the room, slamming against the steel wall and slumping to the ground, much like Eric had. Unfortunately, she didn’t stay that way for long, quickly getting to her feet and once again heading straight for them. Then all of a sudden, her head fell to the floor and rolled away.
Chapter 30
“Dad?” Cael shouted at his father, unable to hide the astonishment in his voice or the smile on his face.
Eric stood behind the creature, a huge bloody sword in his hands. His face covered with splotches of Elizabeth’s blood, fear or maybe relief showed through his blue eyes as he took in a deep breath, expelling the air with a sigh as he swiped the blade against the creature’s body to clean it. “That should keep her down.”
Through all the commotion, Cael hadn’t realized his father was still alive. “It’s nice to know I’m still able to protect my son, even if he never wants to speak to me again,” Eric said, staring at Cael. Their eyes locked. Within seconds, Carly and Siana were embracing the man Cael never had the chance to know. For some reason, he now thought maybe it was time, because the sick feeling in his gut at his father’s possible demise suggested he cared a little more than he wanted to admit. He grabbed Addison’s arm, tugging her against him, then with his arm around her shoulders, walked them over to the rest of his family, wanting so much to be in on the group hug.
“Was I convincing enough for you?” Eric asked.
“Yeah, maybe a little too convincing,” Cael supplied.
“I want to know what’s going on. How did you guys do all that stuff and why didn’t I know we had a brother?” Carly asked, her voice mixed with excitement and frustration.
They all turned at the sound of the metal door squeaking open as Caitlin and the woman who had escaped entered. Caitlin turned the woman around, exposing her hands securely tied behind her back. A few seconds later, in walked Aiden, holding onto one of the escaped man’s bound arms. A nice big flame flowed from Aiden fingertips that he held just below the guy’s chin, scorching his whiskers every few seconds. The guy yelled and begged in agony for Aiden not to burn him anymore.
Caitlin left the woman standing next to Aiden and ran to her sister, embraced her, then her mother and father. “I’m so glad you’re all okay!”
“It seems I still have a few tricks up my sleeve.”
“How did you know they escaped?”
“The ear buds worked very well. I had a vision of these two escaping from this room and heading toward the dock. Caitlin is a little spitfire of a lass and tripped the woman as she ran past the corner we were hiding behind, then pounced on top of her. The woman hit her head on the pavement so hard it knocked her completely unconscious long enough for Caitlin to truss her up right. I surprised Mr. Intel refugee here from behind. The gun I held at his back and the flame to his face convinced him to surrender while Caitlin tied his hands. I lost contact with you guys after that, but I see everything worked itself out.”
“Funny that you should say that,” Addison said, laughing.
“Which part?” Cael asked, plucking the crystal from Joseph’s lab coat pocket and without blinking an eye, handing it to Addison. He supposed he still harbored a little distrust toward Aiden and he didn’t like the idea of any sort of private joke the two might share.
“The Intel refugee part.” She fisted the pendent with a little squeeze, making her knuckles turn white before slipping it into her pocket. “I thought the exact same thing about these guys when they came walking in here in their white jump suits, belt clips with plastic bottles and whatnots and then of course, the white gauze hats. Didn’t you think they looked a bit comical, Cael?”
“Yeah, now that you mention it.” He smiled, thrilled that she included him in the little joke that wasn’t quite so private after all.
Eric walked to Siana and palmed her cheek. “Si, get the girls out of here and take them to your brother’s.”
“Okay.”
“Mom, could you come right back with Gerry? I think we’re going to need his help to sort out all this mess.” Cael tilted his head toward the woman and man Aiden still held at gun point.
After his mom and sisters left, his father turned to Addison. “Do you think you can torch this place, Addison?”
Her eyes grew huge. “The room is made of steel and I’ve never done anything like that before.”
“Well, maybe you could just torch the dead, then.”
“I can set Joseph on fire, but my flames won’t penetrate Elizabeth’s skin.”
“Wait,” Cael said. “He cut off her head, so, maybe you can get the flames to go into her through the wound. Set her on fire from the inside out.”
“That might work.” She stepped closer to Elizabeth and Cael walked with her. The stench was sickening. “I hope you find some peace, Elizabeth.” She aimed for the bloodied opening where her head used to be and shot a ball of flame into the huge body, igniting the creature’s insides. The smell of burning flesh permeated the air and they had to cover their noses.
“It seems to be working.”
“I’ll take care of the head,” Aiden said.
“Thanks. I don’t think I have the stomach for that part.” Addison stood over Joseph’s body. “I don’t understand what made you such a horrible person.”
“At least we can sleep better now that he’s dead,” Caitlin said.
Addison gave Caitlin an understanding smile as a stream of fire left her hands and burst into flames when it hit Joseph’s white lab coat. Cael and Addison jumped back to avoid getting burned.
“I should have warned you,” Eric said. “I’m pretty sure he’d been working with some powerfully flammable chemicals. His coat must have been covered in them.”
Cael nodded as his father placed an affectionate hand on his shoulder. “Cael, can you go check the building and make sure no one else is here?”
“Yeah. Be right back.”
At the edge of the dock, they all stood by and watched as Gerry performed his magic mind spell on the woman and the guy in the white jumpsuit, wiping their minds clean of anything to do with Carly and the crystal. He seemed to take great pleasure in hitting them both at the base of their skull with the handle of Cael’s gun and rendering them unconscious first, Cael noted. Gerry explained it would be easier to perform the memory plants that way.
“When they wake up they won’t remember us or anything about our people. I left the memory of Elizabeth the best I could from your descriptions, as well as Joseph, but they won’t have any clue what happened to them or how their bodies burned. Since we can’t turn them in for their crimes, I’ve instilled a sense of being good law-abiding citizens in them. They won’t be in a state prison with other criminals, but I don’t think they’ll be doing anything illegal again,” Gerry shrugged. “It’s the best I can do.”
“Instant rehabilitation. Sounds good to me,” Eric said.
Cael stared at the two bodies slumped together beside the yacht anchored alongside the dock, having no doubts about how well Gerry’s ability worked.
Chapter 31
It was two in the morning by the time they all settled down at the bar in the Cliff Hanger. Carly had plenty of time to shower and change after being held captive for so long. She looked so much more like Caitlin when she was clean. A little food in her stomach and she was actually smiling as she sat with Caitlin and their mother discussing all the things they planned to do with their big brother now that they knew about him. He secretly grinned at that last thought. He was a big brother. God, he wished he’d been able to pull some of those stunts his friends had back in junior high school, the ones who’d had sisters and teased the hell out of them. He figured he could still do that every so often at holidays and other family get-togethers, which he would make sure they had from now on. It turned out his father was not the big coward he’d imagined, allowing Cael to see him in a new light and afford him the respect he deserved. Even though he thought they all could have handled the situation differently, he wanted to get to know his dad better now.
He wrapped his arm around Addison and drew her close as he helped fill in pieces of the story she was telling about the experience with Elizabeth and Joseph. Addison’s cheeks grew pink while he related to Maia and Gerry about how brave she’d been, trying so hard to coax the creature into submission. He’d never forget what she’d said to Elizabeth about all the sorrow and pain his disappearance had caused her. He wanted to make it up to her somehow.
He loved this woman and she wanted him, too. Man, life couldn’t get much better. He glanced up, his attention taken by laughter a few feet away and caught Aiden enjoying himself with Caitlin and Carly. After listening to Addison tell Elizabeth about all the anguish he’d caused her during his disappearance, he now better understood the relationship Addison and Aiden shared. He supposed he should be grateful that she had someone to lean on during that time, but of course, that wasn’t who he was. Even though he harbored a touch, just a touch, of resentment toward the guy, if he hadn’t come home, or hadn’t fallen back in love with Addison, he couldn’t think of a better person for her to spend time with than Aiden. Would he want the guy hanging with one of his sisters? Now that was another issue, one he would most definitely have to think about some more.
He started at the touch of a hand on his shoulder. “Thinking about anything interesting?” Eric asked.
“Just trying to wrap my brain around the idea of having siblings, much less twin sisters.”
Eric nodded toward Caitlin and Carly. “Give it some time. Get to know them better and the rest will follow.”
Cael smiled. “Looking forward to it.”
“Listen, Cael. I know it’s been hard on you growing up without me. I sincerely wish it could have been different. We managed to keep you and your sisters a secret and I was still able to be in your life up until you were about ten. Now you’ve seen the way Joseph was. He wouldn’t let up. He was on to your mother, and especially interested in you when you were a child. He believed he could mold you into some super weapon and I couldn’t let that happen. So, having you disappear into the Sectory where I knew you would be safe, and cutting off all contact was the only solution I could come up with, short of killing him.
”
Cael laughed.
“What’s so funny?”
He shrugged. “Your choice of words, considering it was an extremely long twenty years between when my mother and I went to live at the Sectory until you were finally forced to kill Joseph.”
“Yes, I agree. I am sorry.”
“I’m sorry that you had to kill someone.”
“Me too. You know I couldn’t have done that if he hadn’t pulled the trigger. I knew he would have killed you given a second shot. I’d seen him kill before when one of the employees became frightened and threatened to expose him and what he did to Elizabeth—” He shook his head. “Poor woman.”
“Have you?”
“Have I what? Killed before?”
Cael nodded, wanting to learn as much about his father as he could and determine what kind of man he really was.
“No. Joseph was my first and I hope to God, Elizabeth will be my last.”
Cael took a sip of his drink and studied his mother across the room, laughing and joking with his sisters and Aiden. She loved his father, and even though she’d also lied to Cael, he didn’t hate her, so he supposed he shouldn’t hate his dad either. He wasn’t too sure if he could forgive his absence though. “Are you and Mom going to start living together again?”
“We never stopped. Well, I didn’t live at the Sectory, but Siana was home with me whenever she could be. Benjamin was a lifesaver with you and then later with Breena.”
“Yeah, Ben is remarkable. So are you going to move into the Sectory now?”
“Nothing stopping me now, unless … you have a problem with it.”
“No. No problem. Mom deserves to be happy.”
“But not me?”
“Look, I can’t just turn off my feelings like that. I’ve spent the past twenty years hating you. It’s going to take some time, but if you’re asking me if I mind you being in my life now, I’m going to have to play it by ear. I know now what you did was for my own sake, so I’ll try to ease up on the animosity some.”
A Secret Fate Page 25
