Echoes (Book 1): Echoes

by Caplan, A. M.

  “And you, Gabriel, you are far too cavalier. I need to locate some things. Do not let her out of your sight until I return, or we will see where you wake up next.”

  Hannah sat at a round table in the empty restaurant in a snit. She wasn’t enjoying being on lockdown, but at least her babysitter wasn’t hovering. She wondered how fast he would notice if she walked out the front door, not that she would get far without the car keys.

  Gabe walked in from the back with a round tray balanced on one hand.

  “If you’re going to make a run for it, at least don’t go until after lunch. I make the best fried catfish in the history of the universe, and I want someone with actual functioning tastebuds to experience it. Our friend here has zero judgment in anything but women.” He blew a kiss toward Hannah.

  He wasn’t exaggerating about the catfish. The appetite she’d been mostly without for the last few months was back with a vengeance. When she finally decided there was no way she could possibly fit in another bite of food, she popped one last hush puppy in her mouth for good measure and leaned back in contentment.

  Gabriel smiled. “Told you. It’s an honor for a catfish to die to be a part of a meal this good.”

  “What about the puppies?” Hannah smirked.

  “We use artificial puppy in our hush puppies. Or at least that’s what I tell people.”

  It was funny how much more easily Gabe passed for an average person. He was still inhumanely attractive, but there was an easy way about him Asher hadn’t quite mastered.

  “So how long have you known Asher?” she asked, stifling an unattractive belch semi-successfully.

  “Oh . . .” He stopped to think. “Since around sixteen twenty something or other. I met him in Oslo, where it was then.” He tipped his head and thought for a second. “I don’t think it’s in the same place now, or at least isn’t called the same thing. Anyway”— he shrugged—“that was the first time I ran into Asher. I imagine he was there to blend in. The population is unusually tall and light complexioned, so someone like Asher didn’t stick out too much, as long as they didn’t stay too long or do anything to draw too much attention. Of course, I was there for the women. Second to none.” He rolled his eyes heavenward and sighed.

  “It was purely coincidence that we actually met. We might never have, except it was an old city made of mostly wooden buildings, and someone started a hell of a fire. It was ripping its way through the streets, everything going up like kindling, people running around, trying to get out of its path. That’s what I was in the process of doing myself when I saw this man running into a burning building without a moment’s hesitation. He came out with a person across each shoulder, dropped them, and ran right back in. Then he charged into the house next to it.”

  Gabe sat back and shook his head, amused smile on his face. “You don’t see too many people without extra lives blindly running to their death, so I was fairly certain of what he was. Of course I was also instantly shamed into doing the same thing.” He threw his head back and laughed, tossing his hair out of his eyes. “You should have seen us, Hannah. Burned to a crisp, not a hair or a piece of clothing left on our bodies. And it hurt like the fires of hell. I headed to the outskirts of town, figuring I’d throw myself in the river and drown myself or something, anything to get myself back to one piece. Who do you think I found there? There he was, but he was just lying there in the water, bald as a baby, burned down to the bone in some places. It had to hurt like you can’t even imagine.” Gabe looked at Hannah with a little more seriousness. “He didn’t do anything, just stayed where he was, and I thought I’d been wrong, that he was just an amazingly brave or stupid average man. But he knew what I was too. He rolled his head over and said ‘what if this is it my friend. Only a fool thinks something can last forever.’” Gabe smiled. “I wished I had the strength of will, but the pain was unbearable. I walked into the water and let the current do its work. But when I came back I tracked him down. We’ve been getting into trouble ever since.”

  Hannah sat thoughtfully while Gabe opened a bottle of beer for each of them. She had known there were depths to Asher she couldn’t begin to understand, but she was happy to find her instincts about him been right. He’d done more with his extra time than he gave himself credit for.

  Taking a long drink and wiping the foam from her lip, she asked a question she’d been holding in since the morning.

  “So who’s Mena?”

  “Eavesdropping? I like you more by the minute.” Gabe chuckled, putting down his beer. “If you think Asher is a paragon of virtue, well Mena is a saint. Literally, I believe. You really don’t hear enough about the good ones among us. Less exciting news probably.” He leaned back in his chair, balancing his bottle on the tip of his index finger. “Anyway, Mena’s made it her personal mission to fix the world. She’s a real goody two shoes, that one. Crazy smart too; there aren’t many who can match her when it comes to intellect. Unlike yours truly, she hasn’t squandered her lives.” He gave Hannah an impish smile. “I won’t deny it, I’ve spent most of my lives in the most dissolute of pursuits, worrying primarily about having a good time. What’s the point of eternity if you can’t enjoy it?”

  “You told him she’s too noticeable? Why would she draw attention coming here?”

  He laughed out loud. “Mena wants to save the world, but people as a whole tend to be uninterested in helping with that. Unless you can get their attention. And what gets the most attention these days?”

  “Wars? Terrorists?”

  Gabe made a buzzing sound. “Wrong. Celebrities. So dear, sainted Mena made some movies, did some other carefully calculated things to draw attention, and then used it to get people to pay attention to the causes she wants to see supported. But it does makes her stick out. Obviously an A-list starlet walking down the street here wouldn’t go unnoticed.”

  Hannah shook her head. As if she didn’t feel inferior enough already.

  “So she was the one that got away?” She imagined Asher with a glamorous creature, an Oscar-wielding Mother Theresa, someone his equal, and a being that would be there forever. It made sense, the tiny jealous monster inside her hated to admit.

  “They have a great deal in common. Decency, compassion, not much fun, absolutely no sense of humor, all topped off with the belief that all this is too good to be true. All that touchy-feely stuff. No wonder they spent so many lifetimes together.”

  Gabe finished his beer, deftly flipping his bottle upside down and catching it by the neck. He pushed back his chair and got up.

  “What happened?” Hannah asked.

  He shrugged. “Forever is a very long time. Maybe they just wanted different things. Mena wants to save the human race. Asher just wants . . . well, honestly, I have no idea what he wants. Or maybe they got bored. They’re both pretty boring, compared to yours truly.” He set the empty bottle on the bar with a smile. “But who knows, maybe they’ll bump into each other again. Bound to happen when you live as long as we do.”

  Gabe’s ear turned to a sound Hannah couldn’t hear. Then he spoke loudly to the empty doorway.

  “And that, Hannah, is why you should run away with me now, and I’ll really show you what you’re missing. We can travel the world, visit every exotic destination, walk hand in hand down the most stunning nude beaches.”

  Asher walked in shaking his head.

  “Hannah would have been safer with me after all.”

  She felt like a new woman. Asher bandaged her arm with a new layer of material that he swore wouldn’t stick and gave her an injection of antibiotics followed by another of pain medication. The painkiller was responsible for the majority of the way she was feeling.

  “Where did you manage to dig this stuff up?” She couldn’t imagine much of it had been over the counter.

  “I broke into a veterinary practice.”

  Great. Pet painkillers. The dog tranquilizers were working at least.

  Feeling pleasantly floaty, she followed him down t
o the bar, enjoying that—for what felt like the first time in ages—absolutely nothing hurt. Gabe had closed the bar for the day, and it was empty and warm, the jukebox playing a familiar song quietly in the background. Whatever Gabe was whipping up for dinner smelled delicious.

  “Country fried steak and fried pickles. And french fries and fried okra. Fried everything. I might even fry something for dessert. Oreos, or maybe cheesecake. Or Oreo cheesecake. Thank heavens I lose the accumulated weight every time I die.” He patted his stomach, which was flat as a board.

  After they ate she wished she had instant magical metabolism. Her stomach was visibly distended, but she was thinking about asking Gabe if he’d been joking about frying the cheesecake.

  The bottle without the label was a different story. It was filled with an oddly green moonshine a friend of Gabe’s made outside of town in an illegal still. Over and over Gabe and Asher had tossed off a couple fingers each with no ill effects as they compared notes on the situation. Asher filled Hannah in on events that seemed far away from the quiet dinner they’d just had.

  “We know Amara is after you on behalf of someone else. There are a finite number of reasons she would do anything for anyone, and none of them would be without proper incentive,” Asher sat back and thought for a moment. “It would not be for financial motives unless it was on a scale that would alter world markets. Amara has no need for it; she has amassed a fortune over the centuries. And even if one could tempt her financially, she would do nothing for a regular human. My sister would find that beneath her,” Asher said. “And truly, power is the only currency she recognizes. What she is doing must be for one of our kind, and they must be offering something appealing.”

  He tossed back another inch of moonshine. Gabe refilled his glass while Asher continued.

  “I reached out to someone I know who keeps herself appraised on the actions of many of us out there,” he told Hannah. “She sometimes knows about the ones who are a threat to the general population.”

  Gabe laughed out loud and topped off Hannah’s still mostly full glass, then pushed the bottle toward Asher. “Please tell me you didn’t get ahold of Leandra? You did, didn’t you?” He turned to Hannah. “Leandra might be the craziest being in existence, human or otherwise, and that’s saying something. I mean, some of us get a little”—Gabe circled his ear with a finger—“woo woo after all this time, but she’s on a whole different cosmic plane.”

  Asher drained his glass, then refilled it, shaking the empty bottle for the last dribble. “Gabe just thinks that because after three hundred years of attempts, she still will not sleep with him.”

  “Isn’t that proof she’s crazy?” Gabe said. “Anyway, Leandra believes she and everyone else like us are actually fallen angels or something like that, put here on Earth for some divine reason she hasn’t quite figured out yet. Where is she these days?”

  “I did not ask.” Asher tipped back his glass and set it back down with a clink. “Though most recently I heard it was somewhere in South America.”

  “Yep. Still at it then,” Gabe said. “Last I knew she had a giant doomsday cult going down there, tons of people, all hippy-dippy Earth-child types. It’s the usual gig—not even that original.” He turned to Hannah. “She kills herself so she can disappear and pop back up a couple days later, proving to all her groupies that she’s immortal. Does it to build up a huge following, a real army of people willing to do whatever she wants so they can be on her team when the end comes.” Gabe drained his glass and eyed the empty bottle. “Leandra is also super suspicious of others of our kind because she’s convinced there’s going to be an epic battle between good and evil or some nonsense. She has her people all over the world keeping tabs on all the eternal types she knows about, because when the time comes, Leandra believes the winners are going to get sucked back up to heaven or inherit the earth or get a big shiny pair of wings or something. Whatever she thinks is going to happen, she wants to know who’s on her side when it does.”

  Asher interrupted. “Leandra is a little different, but she is a useful sort of different. And she has information when others do not. I put out a message to her before I started down here, on the off chance she knew anything. She did not have anything definite—only rumors, mind you—but she told me what she heard.”

  He looked at Hannah, who was sniffing the moonshine, debating whether or not to finish it. Asher shrugged, and she knocked it back. It burned so badly her eyes teared up and she coughed until Gabe pounded her on the back.

  “Leandra told me there has been some information drifting back to her about Michael,” Asher said. “Apparently he has popped up again after a hiatus. He is looking for someone.”

  Gabe’s eyebrows rose, and he got up, taking the empty bottle. “If that’s the case, we’re going to need another one of these.”

  Asher nodded, running his hand up through his hair the way he did when he was thinking. It was longish in the front now, and it stood up like a cock’s comb under his fingers.

  “Who’s Michael?” Hannah asked.

  When Asher opened up his mouth to answer, the bar exploded.

  25

  She couldn’t hear the noise, but she could feel it. The air around her vibrated with a wave of unbearable heat and she could smell her own flesh cooking, feel it as it contracted and crackled. Hannah opened her mouth to scream and found she was already screaming, deaf to the sounds coming from her own body, only feeling the stripped rawness in her throat.

  Hannah was running out of air, fighting for breath against an intense pressure against the center of her back, losing against whatever was pinning her facedown to the ground. Only one of her hands was free, and she groped blindly around with it, struggling against the weight on top of her. It was soft and gave when she struck at it. It was a body. She pounded at it feebly, but there was no response.

  Trying to turn herself over wasn’t working, with so much dead weight pressing down on her. She couldn’t move and she was still on fire, the odor of burning hair filling her nostrils and choking her. Hannah opened her eyes, but the smoke was so acrid it turned everything into a stinging haze.

  A blast of cold white caught her in the face, blinding her entirely.

  “There you are. And underneath Gabriel. Just where he would like you, I’m sure.” Another gust from the fire extinguisher hit her. “He always was a sucker for a damsel in distress. Or a damsel in a dress. Or a damsel without a dress. Or with an address. Anyone really. Never was too picky, this one.” The silky voice cooed, and the weight on Hannah’s back disappeared.

  Pushing herself up on her forearms, Hannah was slammed back down to the floor by a foot between her shoulder blades.

  “Now don’t get up on my account,” the voice said. There was a girlish giggle Hannah would know anywhere.

  “Amara.” Hannah coughed.

  “Oops, and there he goes again. So soon, and I didn’t even get to say goodbye. Oh well, no big loss there.”

  Hannah sucked in a desperate breath only to choke on the smoke and ash in the air. When she tried to roll over, Amara’s foot struck her in the temple, and she lay still while the pain ricocheted back and forth between her ears.

  “Now where is that useless brother of mine? You’d think he’d be a little tougher for as big as he is, but I swear to god, he dies every time you breathe on him. Did you know he actually died from a cold once? Who dies from catching a cold?” The weight of Amara’s foot disappeared, and Hannah sucked in a desperate breath. “Don’t tell anybody,” Amara said, “but I admit I might have gone a little heavy on the C-four. Any more and you’d be toast—literally. Just imagine the fuss if I brought you back a crispy corpse.” The metal canister hit the ground with a thunk. “Oh well, all’s well that ends well-ish.”

  Hannah heard herself scream this time, when she was dragged to her feet by her injured arm. Her entire body protested, and she immediately fell back to her knees, only to be jerked back up just as painfully.

  “Oh,
get up, Hannah Banana. Don’t be such a baby. I’m not going to kill you right now. We have places to go, people to see, and time is a-wasting. Your dear old daddy is most anxious to meet you.”

  Amara pulled Hannah through the smoking remains of the bar. She tried to make herself dead weight, but fingers dug into the gunshot wound in her arm and forced her to her feet. The air was mercifully less smoky as she was dragged outside the burning remains of the bar, and she sucked in ragged breaths to ease the tightness in her lungs.

  A siren wailed not far off and someone screamed. Hannah heard the sound of running feet, then she was suddenly released and shoved face-first to the pavement.

  Shots rang out, deafeningly close. Hannah managed to roll over in time to see Amara casually squeeze off another shot at a bystander rushing toward them to help. Near the sidewalk, just feet away, a familiar figure in a barista’s apron lay crumpled in the street. The feet were now rushing in the other direction.

  “Nope. Nope, nope, nope. Just where do you think you’re going, missy?” Amara planted a boot on Hannah’s ankle, and when Amara twisted her foot and ground down, Hannah screamed at the crunch of her own failing bones. Then Amara reached down and dragged Hannah back from where she had been trying to scramble under a parked car. “Cute pants. And in we go.”

  Hauled up by her hair, Hannah was shoved into the passenger seat of a car. Amara paused to fire off a few more shots in the direction of two police officers who ducked between cars. One disappeared, falling backwards and out of sight. The second crumpled sideways, clutching his side.

  “Stop struggling.” An open hand cracked against the side of Hannah’s head as she tried to shove her way back out of the door. Before her head stopped ringing, her hands were locked into handcuffs, the chain looped through the grab bar above her shoulder.

  Throwing the car into drive, Amara whipped away from the curb with a squeal of tires. Hannah pulled down so hard against the bar above her that she felt the skin around her wrists tear against the metal cuff.