Eternal Flame - Book 6 (The Ruby Ring Saga)

by Chrissy Peebles

  “Well, I’m sure there’s another way.”

  “There isn’t. Charles and I went through every ancient scroll we could find. You shoulda let us come with you to that island.”

  “It wasn’t my choice to make. Trust me, if I could have taken you, I would have. I feel responsible for you losing your bond, and that kills me. If I would have just stayed out of your life, you’d still be living there, happy as a clam. I’m sorry I screwed things up for you, Liz.”

  “You didn’t. My life is perfect because you, Mom, Dad, Victor, and Alexander are in it. I never would have seen you again, and that thought breaks my heart. Sure, I’m sad about Charles and me, but I have all of you, and that’s the important thing.”

  “Thanks, sis. I’m glad you feel that way. I just couldn’t continue my life not knowing where you were.”

  “I’m sorry I couldn’t tell you.”

  “Gee, maybe we need to introduce that other world to Wi-Fi, huh? Or at least teach them to train carrier pigeons to travel through the portal.”

  “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said, laughing. “Can you imagine the kinds of websites Ethano would be looking at? TastyTeenTastians.com.”

  “Ew! But all kidding aside, I’ve cost myself and others so much. Look at all I’ve done to you, to Victor, interrupting your lives like that. He was happily ruling a kingdom until he met me.”

  “Are you kidding me? He was a horrible, horrible person, Sarah. You are the best thing that ever happened to him.”

  “But I cost him everything.”

  “That’s bull. His rivalry with Ethano started before you were even ever born. You can’t blame yourself.”

  “I try not to, but no matter what road I choose, I always seem to hurt someone. I mean, think of Mom and Dad. Mom thought I died and cried for me, just like she did when she thought you died. That broke her heart.”

  “As you said, not everything was your choice to make.”

  “I know. I’m trying my best to endure the storms, but I don’t wanna lose myself in all my problems. I just want to be a good mom, wife, sister, and daughter.” I truly believed every failure, mistake, screw-up, loss, heartache, and all the pain I’d suffered had made me a better, stronger person. I didn’t want to wallow in self-pity, even though it sometimes bothered me. I tried to dodge the huge waves that threatened to drown and crush me, but sometimes I felt powerless to stop them.

  “You are all those things and more, and this monsoon will pass. Just think of yourself as a huge, towering oak tree. All that rain and wind might blast your leaves and blow you all around like a hurricane, but in the end, your roots are deep, and you stand strong. It’s all about perseverance, Sarah.”

  “So when I feel like I’m drowning, I just have to hold my breath long enough, huh?”

  She winked. “Well, you’re immortal, so you can hold it an awful long time. Maybe we should try to set a world record before we go.”

  “Somehow, I don’t think immortals qualify for Guinness. Anyway, I feel like I owe you atonement or something.”

  “In Dornia, burnt offerings and human and animal sacrifices are quite acceptable.”

  I looked at her, my eyes wide. “Liz!”

  “She burst into laughter. “Kidding. We’re not medieval savages. Sorry. Here you are pouring out your heart, and I’m making jokes. But I know the perfect atonement for your sins.”

  I cocked a brow. “What?”

  “A Hershey bar.”

  I grinned. “I think I can handle that.”

  “Great, because I can’t get enough chocolate. I’ve missed it so much.”

  “I know. When I stepped through that cave on the night of the expedition, I never expected to be taken away from chocolate.”

  “You and me both, sister.”

  “I just thought I’d come face to face with the creature I’d been stalking.”

  “And what would you have done if it had charged?”

  “Frank had my stun gun, so I wasn’t worried. I thought I was out overnight, but I think it was really only for a minute or so. One of the most important things I’ve learned in all this craziness is that we cannot possibly predict how things will turn out.”

  “I know. I mean, I never would have thought we’d become immortal. And you’re married to a king and had a baby mentioned in some old prophecies.”

  I stopped at the red light and glanced over at her. “And people thought I was nuts for talking about Big Foot. Never in a million years would I have expected all this.”

  “Yeah, it’s pretty farfetched. Hollywood’s got nothing on our reality. I guess life can take us by surprise sometimes.”

  “And then some.”

  She laughed. “Who ever said life was gonna be easy?”

  “I don’t know, but it’s definitely interesting.”

  “Wild and crazy!”

  Suddenly, flashing lights and sirens made my heart skip a beat.

  “Shit. We’re being pulled over by the police.”

  “Well, you’re in the driver’s seat, lead foot,” Liz said, looking over her shoulder.

  “I wasn’t speeding,” I said. “If anything, I was driving too slow.”

  “Please tell me you have the fake license Jackson gave you.”

  I sighed. “Don’t worry. It’s just a routine stop, and I already memorized the speech.”

  She blew out a long breath and shook her head. “And Mom thinks you’re the good sister.”

  “I am!”

  She grinned. “Just keep it together, Highness.”

  “Just hand me the registration from the glovebox,” I said.

  “Yes, Majesty,” she said, fumbling through the papers and maps.

  Suddenly, a light bright hit me, and I knew it was a vision. Before I knew it, I was sitting in the back of the police car.

  With absolutely no idea that I could see and hear him, the policeman used his radio to call in our license plate number to find out if the car was stolen or if there was a warrant out for our arrest.

  “We just got that plate number an hour ago,” a voice crackled. “This car matches the description perfectly.”

  The man hit his lights and sirens to pull us over. “How should we approach them?”

  “Their powers are paralyzed, so we’re okay. No need for force. Doc wants the queen alive. Just arrest them on some bogus charge.”

  “All right. Send in some immortal backup, just in case,” he said.

  “Copy that,” the voice on the radio said, then signed off.

  The policeman flipped opened his phone and dialed some numbers. “You’re not gonna believe this, but that info you picked up is spot on. The immortals are here, and I’ve got two Caucasian females driving the described vehicle, with the same plate number.”

  Silence.

  “I’ll bring them in and deliver them to you personally.”

  Another flash of light jolted me to another scene, in the future this time. Instead of being a bystander, I was part of the vision.

  Liz gripped my hands like a distraught woman, and I’d never seen her face look so pale.

  “Liz, are you okay?” I asked.

  “How can you ask me that?” she shouted hysterically.

  I blinked. “What’s happening?”

  “Are you in denial or just blind?” she asked.

  “Talk to me, Liz,” I said, softly and calmly.

  Tears fell down her face. “My life is over. Those bastards killed our husbands and my nephew, and we’re next. We shoulda left this world a long time ago, because it’s brought us nothing but doom.”

  Dumbfounded, I looked into her eyes. “Victor and my baby are...dead?”

  “They all are,” she whispered.

  I doubled over and fell to my knees, sobbing uncontrollably.

  “Sarah!” Liz shouted in my ear. “Wake up!”

  I snapped back into reality when a honking horn blared. I was shocked to see Liz trying to steer the car, and I immediately retook contro
l of the wheel. “I’m back,” I said.

  “What the hell!?” she screamed. “You zoned out and left me to drive with the cops on our ass. Just pull over!”

  “We can’t.”

  “What do you mean? Why not?”

  “If we do, we’ll lose Charles, Victor, our parents, and Alexander to the blue-ringed immortals.”

  She gasped.

  “They work for the immortals,” I said. “Or maybe they’re immortals. I’m not sure.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked.

  “I had a vision. If we pull over...well, somehow, it will lead to their deaths.”

  Chapter 13

  “Your visions are back?” she said.

  I swallowed hard. “Yeah. In this one, you lost Charles. I’ve never seen you so...devastated.”

  She cupped her mouth as she gasped.

  “My visions haven’t been wrong yet,” I said, shooting her a side glance. “How do you wanna handle this?”

  “Lose him...fast.”

  I pressed the gas pedal, and we surged ahead, down a deserted road. More police cars approached and pulled beside us at a slight angle, then pushed against our rear wheel with their bumper, trying to cause me to spin out.

  “They’re trying to run us off the road!”

  “Crash into them! Sideways!”

  I steered sharply to the left.

  BUMP! SLAM!

  The car just came back at me harder, throwing my head into the back of the seat and giving me a bad case of whiplash. It was a scary mix of adrenaline pumping, roaring engines, and squealing tires.

  “Oh no they didn’t!” Liz closed her eyes, then threw her arm toward them.

  The police car spun in a huge circle and flipped over, skidding on its top.

  “I did it!” my sister screamed in my ear. “Take that, you blue-ringed freaks!”

  “We’re so getting busted for this,” I said. “How much you wanna bet this is gonna be on the six o’clock news? Mom is gonna freak.”

  “They’re immortals who want to kill our family. We have no choice but to fight back. Mom will understand.”

  “As long as we don’t hurt anyone.”

  “They’re immortal, Sarah.”

  “Those two might be, but some won’t be. More are coming,” I said.

  She glanced over her shoulder. “What? Where? I don’t see anything.”

  “I feel their energy,” I said.

  She took a deep breath and closed her eyes. “I can feel them too.”

  I made some more turns and didn’t see anybody following me. Maybe I lost them, I thought.

  “You know why we couldn’t feel the blue ringed immortals before? It’s because we’re newbies. Because Victor and Charles have felt them from the very beginning.”

  “Yes, Victor felt their presence at the tree lighting ceremony, our first run-in with them. But he’s hundreds of years old and way more experienced than me.”

  “I wish we could feel our own kind that way.”

  “At least we can feel when a blue ringed immortal is around now.”

  “It’s gotten way stronger since the ceremony Jackson put us thorough. It feels like an electric current. It gets stronger as they get closer. Oh, I’m so loving these new powers.”

  “I can feel them!” I said. “Feel it?”

  “Yep! They’re right behind us!”

  Biting my lip, I drove even faster. I turned down the next street, hoping to lose them, navigating the turn at over 100 miles an hour. It was way too fast, but I had to protect my family. My son had fought his way into the world, and I was not going to let anything happen to him, no matter how erratically and fast I had to drive. We couldn’t afford to get caught, or everyone I loved would die. I pushed on, thanks to that primal maternal instinct, an overwhelming urge to protect my baby.

  “What are we gonna do, Sarah? They just won’t give up.”

  Suddenly, a thought struck me. “Liz,” I said, “can you use that time trick thing you used back at the house, with the fire?”

  “It takes five years to recover from something like that.”

  “Hmm. Well, do you think I can do it?” I said.

  “Are you kidding? Do you know how much training that took?”

  “So walk me through it. Just give me the highlights, the crash course.”

  “Can we not talk about crashes right now?”

  “Just tell me how to do it, Liz.”

  “No way. If it’s not done properly, it can kill us or mess time all up. Why do you think Charles was so upset about it? Besides, we’ve got enough of our own powers to deal with these idiots. Did you see how I took out that police car?”

  “I know, but more are coming,” I said, peering into the rearview mirror.

  “Don’t worry. I can handle them.”

  “All of them?”

  There had to be dozens of police cars trailing behind, lights flashing and sirens blaring, like they were chasing an international crime lord. A hail of lead hit the window, and a cobweb-like crack began to form.

  “They’re firing at us!” Liz said.

  “It’s not lethal,” I breathed out. “They’re just warning shots, trying to scare us into pulling over.”

  They were now swarming at us from 360 degrees, and a helicopter flew overhead, giving them an unbeatable advantage. I wasn’t sure how we were going to outrun them, and I wondered if we would better off to just face them.

  The car thudded as we ran over something. I was going so fast that I wasn’t even sure exactly what we hit.

  “What was that?” Liz asked.

  In all the chaos, I heard a slight hissing noise out my window. “Damn it. Spike strips. It won’t blow the tires, but they’ll slowly deflate till they’re flat.”

  “Maybe we should make a run for it.”

  We quickly came up with a few options to choose from. I wasn’t sure what we should exactly do. I thought we should hit hard and fast with our powers, then run.

  We kept going until the tires went flat. Our options at that point were limited. We had more powers than before, but against so many, I was sure even that wouldn’t be enough.

  The tires started to disintegrate, and before we knew it, we were driving on rims. We couldn’t go faster than fifteen miles per hour, and friction sparks were flying in every direction, so much so that I feared the car might catch on fire.

  When the car came to a stop not far from a lake, I started to panic. My palms were sweaty, and my heart was racing. They unleashed barking dogs, and I bit my lip hard. A flash of light hit me, and another vision blinded me. It was a quick one, but I didn’t like what it showed me.

  “You know Cujo is gonna bite into my leg the second I step out of this car,” Liz said.

  “You’re right. I just had a quick vision.”

  “What did you see?”

  “Medics flushing pepper spray out of your eyes. They were also pulling taser barbs out of your skin and treating you for a dog bite.”

  “So I put up a good fight, huh?” she asked. “I don’t wanna be treated like a Milk-Bone.”

  “Yeah, me neither.”

  “Did you think to wear Victor’s chainmail?” she asked.

  “Liz, this isn’t really a joking matter,” I said. “We need to figure out a plan.”

  “You’re right. Can you feel their energy?” she asked. “There are so many of them. It’s overwhelming.”

  “I can feel it,” I said, “and I’m scared as hell.”

  “Me too.”

  “Sarah and Elizabeth Larker, we’re calling off the dogs. Someone will approach your vehicle. They only wish to speak with you!” a voice called over the loudspeaker.

  “What?”

  I touched her arm. “Let’s just hear them out.”

  “But you know how it ends!”

  “We’ll stall them until we can think of a way out of here.”

  A red-haired woman in a brown pantsuit walked over to our car came over. “Hello,
Sarah,” she said. “I’m Detective Holan. We don’t mean you any harm.”

  “No harm? You kidnapped her and tortured her and Della!” Liz said.

  “I’m sorry about that,” she said. “There are many fanatics, but I assure you that has been dealt with. You’ll never have to see them again.” She looked at Elizabeth. “I just ran a background check on you. You disappeared on a camping trip and were pronounced dead.”

  “Do I look dead to you?” Liz asked.

  “Where have you been for all these years?”

  “Living a fairytale,” she replied.

  “So why did you come back?”

  “I know my rights, Officer. I won’t say another word without my lawyer present.”

  “We know you were born human, disappeared for years, then came back as an immortal. Your sister hunted for you, disappeared for a year and also came back as an immortal. Where did you go? Where is this place where mere humans are turned into immortals? We certainly can’t do that here.”

  “The details are fuzzy,” I said.

  “You disappeared in Sabrino Cave, and your team went missing on the night of that expedition but came back a few days later. We’ve questioned the men intensely.”

  “Adam, Frank, and...”

  “Leave them alone!” I cut in. “They don’t know anything about all this.”

  “Interestingly enough, they’re human, so how did you and you sister turn immortal? You stayed there longer. We know that much. Who did you meet that would grant you such a wish?”

  I didn’t answer.

  “And who did you meet who told you that pantsuit wasn’t out of style in 1972?” Liz insulted.

  The detective glared at her, then looked back at me, hard. “Who are you working with?”

  “Well, on this current project, a super-secret mission to go get milk and eggs from the grocery store, just my sister. Why?”

  She shook her head, and her eyes narrowed. “You will tell me who you are working with. I have my suspicions, but I need to hear it from your mouth.”

  I wondered if she suspected I was working with Jackson. As intimidating as she was, I was just glad she couldn’t read my mind. “I’m not working with anybody,” I said.

  “We have explored Sabrino Cave, because we suspect that is where the portal is, but we’ve not been fortunate enough to find it. Did Della lie to us?”