Jake reaches up a hand to Grandma’s cheek. “It’s okay,” he says. “They need her more than we do. She will be safe.”
Grandma shakes her head.
“No!” Jake shouts. “It’s different this time.”
Grandma just stares at him and then looks at me. A single tear streaks down her face as she nods. “Go. Get these greyskins out of here for good.”
A feeling of relief spreads across my shoulders from her words. Having the approval this time seems to make it different. I give them each a look and turn to leave.
“Mora, wait,” says Christopher. “Your side is bleeding. Let me help you before you go.”
I hold up a hand. “It’s alright. It’s nothing. You can help me when I get back.”
“Well, you’re not going alone,” Bill says as he starts to climb down the treeÀdown the. Christopher follows him.
“Christopher, Bill, no,” I say.
“What?” Bill says with a look of anger on his face. “I’m not going to sit here while my village falls to ruin.”
“We can’t risk Christopher being captured,” I tell him. “Commander Green is still out there. Christopher is still his priority.” I shake my head. “It’s a long story that I’m sure you’ll learn about soon enough. You two just need to stay behind and make sure the others are safe.”
Bill sets his jaw firmly, but he doesn’t argue with me. Christopher opens his mouth to say something but I stop him with a shake of my head. “Just listen to me.”
Neither of them says anything as I turn. Calling the knife back to my hand, I start running toward the Tower.
Mayhem. That’s all I can see when I near the Tower. Body parts lie in every direction, blood fills the puddles mixed with rain. Guns blaze as greyskins keep ripping their way into the village. I would do what I could to close the gaps that let the greyskins in, but there are so many it would be impossible.
Heather moves at blinding speeds trying to kill as many greyskins as she can. Evelyn has resorted to standing near Danny with a gun drawn as he swings large objects at anything coming toward them. A blast of light illuminates the entire area as Aaron sends electric bolts through a group of greyskins.
I’m happy to see them all alive, but it’s a happiness that can’t last for long. Closing my eyes, I seek out Commander Green. He’s not invisible right now, and he’s limping heavily. He’s past the Tower, making his way to a group of Screven vehicles. He’s alone and leaving a watered down trail of blood behind him. He’s going to try and escape, leaving the greyskins for us to deal with.
But when I open my eyes, I know this can’t be the case. From what I’ve seen of Jeremiah over the past few days, Green knows he can’t go back to Screven without Christopher. He knows Jeremiah will kill him. Failure isn’t an option. Green isn’t getting to a vehicle to leave. He’s going back to get Christopher.
Greyskins rush toward me before I realize they are so close. My knife sails through the air, and so do some of the greyskins. As they close in on me, I suddenly wish I had a gun.
I move forward and reach down to pull out the knife from one of the greyskins and hear a loud boom behind me. A greyskin slumps to the ground, head gaping. Behind it stands Evelyn with her gun in the air.
“It’s been a long time since I’ve done this!” she says with a smile, but her face turns suddenly stern when she sees my side. “Your shirt is soaked in blood, are you okay?”
I nod, assuring her that I’m fine, though I refuse to look at it right now. I can’t look at it.
“Where’s Green?” she asks me.
“I’m going after him,” I say. “He’s trying to get a car.” Evelyn shoots two greyskins in the head as they approach. “You were right,” I tell her.
“About what?”
“About everything,” I say. “If you would have told me everything about Jeremiah two weeks ago, I would have thought you were crazy. I see now why you want him dead so much.”
She nods at me. “Go get Commander Green,” she says. “We’ll figure out what to do with Jeremiah another time.”
I move my legs away from the action. Again I feel like I should stay here with the others, but I don’t have a choice. Letting Green capture Christopher and take him to Jeremiah is a bigger threat than the Greyskins are right now. At least for the long run it is.
I keep running until the gunfire and lightening boltÀghtenings are just distant sounds. I suddenly find myself in the exact spot where my mother and father had been scratched up by greyskins. They had been trying to save me. A pang of guilt unsettles my stomach, but I’ve got to keep moving. The Screven vehicles are not far.
Reaching near the top of the hill, I can see Green rummaging through the first vehicle on the side away from me. He looks up and around for any greyskins and instantly spots me standing about fifty feet away.
“I’m not going to let you take him to Jeremiah,” I say.
He clenches his teeth and walks slowly toward this side of the vehicle. He’s got a rifle in his hands, though it looks like he can barely hold it up. “I just need him to heal me. That’s all.”
“But that’s not all,” I say. “You’re going to take him to Jeremiah.”
“I’m finished with Jeremiah,” he says, much to my surprise. “I know his secret. I know why he needs a healer. But now I need it worse than him.” He lifts up his shirt to reveal a row of teeth marks near his ribs. “There’s no doubt it’s lethal. I also know Christopher’s probably only good for healing a greyskin victim once.”
I think back to when that conversation had taken place and shake my head. “You’ve listened to everything we’ve said haven’t you?”
Green says nothing, but he doesn’t deny it.
“Put the gun down,” I say.
In response, Green vanishes into thin air, his gun along with him. Knowing that I can’t deflect bullets without knowing their path, I duck behind a tree as quickly as I can. Bullets hit the side of it, shooting bark in every direction. I’ve got to be more careful now that he has a gun.
Closing my eyes, I can see that he’s walking toward me quickly. I know I’ve got to keep moving. With a normal human enemy, I would simply snatch the gun from his grip, but I have no idea where it actually is at any given moment.
I run from my cover of the tree and toward the vehicles, opposite the side he had been running. Shots fly passed my head as I sprint to the front of the first SUV and slide on my chest through a large puddle. I crawl on my hands and knees until my back rests against the front tire.
I bend my head below the front door and watch the ground on the other side. For a long moment, I hear and see nothing, which makes me nervous because I’m not sure if he’s right behind me or not. I nearly panic from doubt until I see the footprints in the mud.
Step-by-step, large, cautious indentions make their way near the vehicle. I smile at his slip up. He never anticipated that making himself invisible would cause his footprints to stand out. I reach out my hand and grab the air as if I’m grabbing his leg and pull.
Green instantly appears as he falls to his back, but he doesn’t let go of his gun. Instead, he let’s off another flurry of bullets under the vehicle. One of them grazes my shoulder as I roll from my torso to my back behind the tire. My shoulder burns from the shot, but I’m just happy it didn’t go through my head.
I pull myself up into a crouch and look through the back window and see nothing. All the windows crash loudly as the bullets rush through, this time nearly grazing my head, but I duck down again just in time.
Knowing that he’s still standing on the other side of the SUV, I close my eyes, reach my hands out and lift the vehicle off the grou
nd. With a mental shove, I send it straight in front of me, flying through the air until it crashes loudly into the bottom of a tree. For a brief moment, I’m still afraid that Green might be lurking around ready to kill me, but then I see him wedged between theÀd betwee tree and the SUV.
Relief floods over me at the s
ight of him. The roof of the vehicle has crushed him from the waist down. The man is still alive, still flickering in and out of invisibility. But he’s not going anywhere.
The vehicle crushing him is on its side. Wires poke out in different directions and gas leaks from the tank. In his right arm, he still carries the gun. I stand straight and walk toward him, but stop when I see that he’s laughing at me.
“You’re never going to win this fight,” he says. “You can’t beat Jeremiah. He’s worked too long and hard for this. You have no idea how powerful he is.”
“We will win,” I say. “Someone will take him down. Even if it isn’t me.”
“Do you see how much trouble you’ve had with these greyskins?” he says, his breaths getting heavier. “Do you see how difficult it was for you to beat me? I know Evelyn has shown you some things. I know you think you are powerful enough. But you don’t know anything yet. You haven’t seen difficult. You don’t know the whole story.” He’s wheezing so hard now it looks as if he’s trying to catch his breath.
He gives me a look in the eyes, one of defiance. He pulls up his rifle and squeezes the trigger for the final time. I don’t even flinch as the bullet comes at me. My eyes stay open and the bullet stops inches from my forehead. It spins so rapidly I can almost feel the heat from it. I look from the bullet to Green who has slumped down in defeat, ready to accept death. And I am ready to send him.
With barely a push, I send the bullet back toward him as quickly as it had come. In the last split second I command the bullet downward into the flowing gas tank. Sparks fly and the gas ignites the vehicle into a loud explosion, engulfing Green and his greyskin-infected body.
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
I can’t help but stare at the flames for a long moment. Green’s words stick in my mind. I feel like I’ve learned so much about Jeremiah, but Green assured me that I know so little. He guaranteed that we face a much bigger danger than we realized.
The heat from the vehicle makes my face feel like it’s glowing. I walk from the wreckage through the sopping mud. I don’t feel like I have the strength to run anymore, but my legs carry me quickly anyway.
I still hear gunshots and lightning, so I know the fight isn’t finished. But there is a different sound that makes me stop in my tracks. It’s a thumping sound that isn’t familiar to me. When the sound gets louder, I actually see its origin beyond the treetops.
Helicopters.
My legs move again as I near the Tower. I’m not sure whether these are enemies or friends, so I don’t know if I should try to pull them out of the sky or not. When I make it to the clearing, I can see four of them hovering in the air. Each of them is filled with people. People who look like they’ve fallen on hard times. This isn’t an attack from Jeremiah. I think back to the radio transmission Aaron and I received. These are colonists from Sudyka.
A few of them hang off the sides of the helicopters, pointing their guns at the greyskins. As they open fire, greyskins fall to the ground in droves. I and the other Starborns seize the moment to use every bit of power we have to finish off what is left of them.
Ten minutes go by and the helicopters keep circling the greyskins. Villagers of Springhill get into their vehicles, trying to distract the greyskins into different directions, then they silence them. Within twenty minutes of the helicopters showing up, the gunfire ceases, the moaning of the undead stops.
I don’t even realize that I’m on my knees until Aaron puts his hand on my shoulder and kneels beside me.
“Are you okay?” he asks.
I nod, thinking only of what Green had said to me. That, and the sharp pain in my side. The rain still falls and the blood of the dead trickles down in tiny rivers throughout the village.
Aaron just sits with me as the helicopters land and colonists start to file out.
“Looks like we’ve got some explaining to do,” Aaron says. He rubs my shoulder and kisses the side of my head as he stands and then tells me he’s going to the Tower to make sure we are all clear on the Satellite. I smile at him, but stay where I am, staring at the newcomers.
Though I don’t move, I’m shocked to see a man that I have only seen in my dreams. It’s Jeffery, the teleporter though twenty or so years older. Evelyn runs to him and throws her arms around him. It just goes to show how little I really know. I didn’t think Jeffrey would have been a part of Sudyka. That’s where his Sarah died. But there’s no telling what I’m clueless about. Evelyn might have only shown me things from her side of the story. Who knows what else there may be.
I stand when I see Grandma and Jake coming in from the tree houses with Linda holding Sadie’s hand and Christopher and Bill carrying Austin on a makeshift stretcher. I fear that Austin’s wound is fatal. Why else wouldn’t Christopher have tried to heal him? Christopher would have to give up his own life to save the man. Austin wouldn’t have him do it. Christopher understands his limitations.
A ringing over the loudspeakers sounds out through the village and Aaron’s voice calls out. “All Starborns report to the Tower. You’re going to want to hear this.”
I glance at the others who seem as confused as I do. I’m the first one to reach the top. Danny and Heather come in next. Evelyn walks in with Jeffrey behind her, and Christopher behind him. Even Sadie comes up.
“I came up here to turn on the satellite and I heard someone on the radio,” Aaron says. “We’ve got someone wanting to talk.” He pauses for a moment. “It’s Jeremiah.”
Every person in the room stiffens at the sound of his name. Aaron turns to the radio and presses down the button. “Go ahead.”
A gruff voice sounds through the static and I recognize it all too well. “I assume your battle has just ended and you are the victors?” He pauses for a moment as if waiting for an answer but no one says a thing.
I look at Evelyn who catches my eye. She swallows and cracks her neck nervously.
“The time has come for us to settle our differences,” he continues. “I’ve received an informant from your side. I know everything there is to know about all of you.” It sounds like his head turns away from the microphone as he calls someone over to him.
I step back to the corner of the room and close my eyes. I know he’s talking about Connor.
I suddenly see the entire room where Connor is standing. Jeremiah sits at a desk. A blindfolded man sits in a chair next to him and Connor stands next to Jeremiah. Two guards have their guns fixed on Connor’s head, ready to kill him if he makes a wrong move.
“Tell them who you are,” Jeremiah says to Connor.
Connor beˀem">Connnds down and puts his mouth near the microphone. “Connor.”
“And why are you here Connor?”
“Because I believe in what you do,” he says. “I believe you are the one that can protect the colonies from the greyskins.”
Something is happening to me. I’m watching Connor and I can see things as usual, but I seem to have feelings that are not my own. I feel the desperation of one fearing for his life. Are these Connor’s emotions?
Jeremiah turns back to the microphone. “Now I’m taking on Connor as an ally, but in order for me to trust him, he’s got to earn it. In my right hand, I hold a pistol. Simple as they come. It’s fully loaded. To my left, I’ve got a prisoner. I think you all may know him. His name is Heinrich.”
Shock seizes my spine as Jeremiah says this. In the back of my mind, I can hear gasps. Aaron is cursing in anger.
“Say hello, Heinrich.”
Jeremiah grabs Heinrich by the hair and pulls his head to the microphone, but he says nothing.
“Say hello, Heinrich,” Jeremiah repeats. This time, his left hand starts to glow and Heinrich’s hair begins to melt at the back of his head. Connor looks on in horror as the flesh begins to burn and Heinrich cries out.
Everything within Connor wants to reach out and break Jeremiah’s face. If only it wouldn’t jeopardize the mission.
“Yes! Yes! I am Heinrich. It’s me!”
<
br /> “Very good,” Jeremiah says, letting go of his head. The blindfold falls off of Heinrich’s face since the back had been burned so badly. Jeremiah calls Connor over to the other side of the table. “Now, I’m going to give Connor the gun.”
He does so and Connor takes it in his hand reluctantly.
“I’m waving for my guards to leave the room.”
To my surprise, none of this is a lie. The guards walk out quietly and shut the door behind them. But Connor knows it doesn’t matter. He knows that if he kills Jeremiah, the guards will rush in and shoot him down anyway. He knows that the only way he can follow through with his mission is to do whatever Jeremiah tells him no matter what.
“Now it’s just me, Heinrich, and Connor. Connor has the gun. Now Connor, your instructions are to kill one of us.”
Connor freezes.
I can’t do this, he thinks to himself.
My eyes open for a brief moment and I see all the others staring at the radio, waiting. I can’t help but breathe heavily. I look at Sadie and wonder if I’ve somehow absorbed her gift. But I don’t hear the thoughts of those in the room with me. This is different. Closing my eyes again, I’m back in the room with Connor.
Jeremiah sits with a smug grin on his face. I wish I were there. I wish I could kill Jeremiah where he sat. I know if it were me, I’d shoot Jeremiah in the face, regardless of the outcome afterward. But this is a tough situation for anyone to be in. I dare not try to talk to Connor and tell him what to do. This is up to him completely. Whatever he decides, I will support him. I will try to help him as best I can, though I’m sure the guards will kill him if Jeremiah dies.
“Go on,” Jeremiah says, “we haven’t got all day.”
Connor walks to stand in front of Heinrich. The man stares up at Connor with his jaws clenched. “We’re both dead anyway,” Heinrich says. “Just shoot him and we’ll fight our way out of here or die trying.”
The Starborn Saga (Books 1, 2, & 3) Page 44
