by Arthurs, Nia
Earlier tonight, when Tess had asked me to spill everything I’d purposely kept my time with Ivy to myself.
“What happened?” she asked gently.
I spoke by rote, numbing myself to the words that represented so much more than a story.
I must have looked quite pitiful for Tess reached out and touched my hand in comfort. Immediately, adrenaline kicked in.
My fingers shot energy. Her cupboard doors flew open and all the Oreo cookies stormed out, creating a wall around us.
Tess laughed, removing her hands. “What’s with that?”
I sheepishly waved my palms and returned the packages to the cupboard.
I couldn’t have one sane conversation without losing control? I stuffed my hands into my pockets and hid my face.
“River…” Tess tried to salve my wounds with her words instead of her touch, but I was not deserving of them.
I shook my head. “I promised myself that I would find her. I hadn’t planned to remain here in Central America, but I worked feverishly, searching every plantation I could. I never saw her again.”
“You did your best,” Tess said. “You saw the rest of the group to safety. That’s what she wanted.”
“It wasn’t enough!” Guilt for my choice, for my lack, for my lies hung like heavy chains around my neck. “She was so young and so pretty. Do you know what they did to girls like her?”
Tess shuddered. At that moment, the kettle screamed. She stood and gathered the tea bags. I collected myself.
Talking about Ivy with Tess was strangely therapeutic.
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
I lifted my head and listened closely. Someone was outside Tess’s door.
“What is it?” she asked.
I put a hand to my lips and waved my hands. The kitchen lights snapped off.
Oreo began to bark outside. A second later, the doorbell chimed. A phone rang in the silence.
Thu-thump. Thu-thump.
Who would be outside Tess’s door so late at night?
“Ms. Hardey!” the knocking continued.
Tess leaned forward, her eyes conveying that the voice was familiar.
“I know him,” she whispered.
I arched an eyebrow and shook my head.
“But I know that guy,” she insisted.
Oreo was barking up a storm. I trusted his warning and followed my instincts. I held Tess back, refusing to let go even as the silence lengthened.
“He’s gone,” she said.
“No, he’s not.”
The man on the other side remained for a long minute. Slowly, assuredly as if he knew I was listening, the stranger walked away.
I waited until the car engine fired up and drove into the night before releasing Tess and setting her away from me.
“He left.”
Tess rose to her feet and stumbled. Her legs had fallen asleep. I caught her easily and helped her massage her legs to kill the sensation.
When I straightened, I grabbed her close and wrapped my arms around her. In the darkness, I allowed the love I felt to shine through my eyes.
Tess looked confused, but I had no reassuring words to offer. Crenley was flexing his muscles.
There was only one way to make it stop.
I slipped my hands into my pockets and kissed her forehead.
I love you.
She looked up in surprise as if she’d heard the words I whispered in the confines of my heart.
“Don’t open your door tonight,” I instructed.
The effects of holding Tess were already beginning to descend. I pushed past the dizziness and limped out of the house.
Nerves were a ball in my gut, but I had something to do and falling apart now wouldn’t accomplish anything.
The night was still. I listened intently and focused on the rumble of an engine. Nothing.
I tried again, pushing aside the nausea to tap into my abilities.
Silence.
Why wasn’t it working? Hadn’t I just been near to Tess? I pressed a hand to my still rapidly beating heart.
The strength that my adrenaline brought had reduced to a flash of power that quickly degraded to a weakened body.
I tried to speed down the street, hoping to catch a glimpse of the vehicle but I only managed to sink to my knees.
Feeling pitiful, I crawled to the house next door and managed to throw myself against the couch before I descended into the darkness.
I WOKE UP TO THE sound of a vehicle rumbling away. Fat beams of sunlight filtered through the windows in the living room.
I rolled off the couch and groaned. The lingering effects of my adrenaline-withdrawal felt like a hangover.
I’d only experienced it once, nearly five hundred years ago but I had never forgotten.
The first thought that popped into my mind was of Tess. I groaned and sat up. I shouldn’t have blacked out.
What if Crenley had returned? What if something happened to her?
I rushed out of the house and knocked on Tess’s door.
“You home?” I yelled.
I got no response. I peeked down her driveway. The car wasn’t there. Right! Tess went to church on Sundays.
I sighed and rambled back to my own yard. As I strolled up the walkway, I stopped short when I spotted a yellow note on my door.
Don’t knock. I’m out. See you later.
I tore the page as despair knotted my stomach. The only person that would knock on my door was my neighbor.
I froze. Someone had intentionally drawn Tess away from me.
Crenley!
Three seconds later, I appeared in Jones’s living room.
“I need your cell phone,” I demanded.
“What? Why?” My friend stared at me as if I’d gone crazy.
“Tess is in danger!”
His eyes widened and he scrambled through his pockets to toss me the device. I slipped the cover off and dialed the number Mrs. Sterm had given to me.
I should have asked this question long ago. Why hadn’t I? I cursed myself as the dial tone sounded in my ear.
“Hello?”
“Mrs. Sterm, listen to me very closely. Have you heard the name Crenley before?”
“Yes,” she said. “Robert Crenley. He hired Paul to do a bit of private work, but he quit a few months back.”
“How many months?”
“I don’t know…” she paused. “Not long after he met you.”
Her words clicked. Paul had tossed Crenley because of me. Because I was the man from the stars that Crenley was searching for.
Had Crenley been threatening the meteorologist long before he decided to move to Belize?
Paul had died protecting my secret. The causalities had peaked at one. Tess would not die because of me. I couldn’t allow it.
“Mrs. Crenley, don’t leave your safe house, do you hear me? I’m going after him.”
“Who?”
“I’ll explain later.”
I hung up and darted toward Jones’s laptop.
“What do you need, man?”
“You’re going to have to go back to that brother-in-law.”
“Why?” Jones moaned.
“Tess is in danger! We don’t have time.”
“Fine. What am I asking for?”
“Ask him to check the public and private records for assets in Belize purchased by a Robert Crenley or…” the search engine popped up and I typed, “his company. An official request will be faster than going down to the court.”
“Alright,” Jones began to dial.
I flicked my fingers and his phone appeared in my hand.
“Hey!”
“Use your landline and call me when you have the information.”
“Where are you going?”
“I’m going to find her.”
“Dude, maybe you should wait for the police or something…”
But I was already gone.
I used my car and drove around the city. Using my senses, I list
ened for Tess’s voice the way I had with Ivy all those years ago.
The sounds of the city threatened to overwhelm me, but I kept on until my nose bled and my mind felt like mush.
I had to find her.
I dialed Jones’s landline.
“Anything?”
“He said he’d look into it, but I don’t think he’s taking me seriously. Unless I can give him a reason to be urgent…”
“Tell him every––”
I heard it then.
“River.”
It was faint but so striking that I knew exactly who it was. I dropped the cell phone and pressed on the gas.
Jones’s tinny voice protested through the speakers of the cell, but the only space in my mind belonged to Tess.
Keep calling, honey.
I followed her voice to an abandoned warehouse near a rusted pier. The Caribbean Sea strolled lazily by.
I climbed out of the car and headed into the dark space. My footsteps echoed in the stillness. I spotted a staircase to my left.
“Tess?” I whispered.
Instead of her frail voice, I heard three separate heartbeats. Crenley was here. Anger pumped through my veins and fed energy to my abilities.
I teleported, crashing through the door. I searched frantically for Tess, but there was only one man in the room.
He matched the descriptions that Luis’s girlfriend had given. This was him. This was Crenley.
I rushed forward with my fists extended. His expression did not change. Crenley waited until I had clutched his collar before speaking.
“I wouldn’t do that if I were you. Tess won’t make it through the night if I am harmed.”
I scrunched the material of his shirt, but dropped my fists.
“That’s better,” Crenley said. “I really had no intention of hurting her and I would have hated to do it.”
“Where is she?”
“Tsk, not so fast, sir.” Crenley glanced at my arm. “Release me.”
I did, grudgingly.
“Why are you doing this?”
“Ah yes, this is where the villain’s spiel is supposed to come in right?” He flipped his hand. “Too bad for you. I don’t feel like talking. Maybe later… if you’re still breathing by then.”
He was trying to goad me but only half of my attention remained on this room. I tracked his every move with my gaze so he couldn’t tell what I was really doing.
If I kept him talking, I could focus on Tess’s heartbeat and locate her. I’d listened to those beats long enough to recognize them anywhere.
Thu-thump.
She was somewhere below me.
“What do you want?”
Thu-thump.
Her heartbeat was slow. Was she unconscious?
“Now that’s the question, my boy. I want what I’ve always desired.”
Thu-thump.
“What’s that?”
“Restoration.”
I focused fully on him, sensing a note of victory in his voice. Suddenly, I heard another heartbeat in the room.
I spun around but it was too late. The man that had followed Tess to Sterm’s place so long ago stuck a needle in my neck.
I went down, my limbs going as limp as noodles though I could see and process everything around me.
Crenley’s shiny brown loafers stepped close to my head. He knelt. I kicked my legs but the limbs refused to respond.
Tess. I had to get to Tess.
“It’s a shame really. The man my family’s whispered about for generations could be cut down by a woman. Tsk, tsk. Oh well, let’s hope the power of your blood lives up to the hype.”
I tried to speak but my words came out garbled. Crenley ignored me.
“Ezra, strap him to the machine.” He paused and spoke deliberately. “And get the girl. I want him to watch her die.”
I pushed past the drugs pulsing through my system and got on my hands and knees. The room spun around me and as the thugs hands grasped my arms my vision blurred.
Tess…
It didn’t matter what this maniac was doing to me. If he laid one finger on Tess I would kill him.
Chapter 29
Black night surrounded my body. I stood in the middle of a dark floor as snatches of moments filtered around me.
I remembered Tess’s voice, her lips pressed against mine.
I remembered a fire.
I remembered avoiding the bullets shot by Crenley and Ezra. Heard the sound of their bodies hitting the cement floor when the iron pierced their chests instead.
When I came to, I was in the backseat of Tess’s car and heading to the hospital.
“Tess?”
“Oh thank God, you’re up.”
“What happened?”
On the way, Tess filled in the gaps.
Her voice shook as she explained Crenley’s plan to use my blood as a tool to bring his dead family back to life.
Tess had kissed me and I’d mustered enough strength to teleport her out of the room. Using the remnants of my strength, I broke the shackles binding me and fought with Ezra and Crenley.
In the tussle, the machines had sparked and caught fire, filling the room with smoke and flames.
Like the crazy, stubborn woman she was, Tess returned to the fiery room and kissed me one last time so that I could teleport us both out.
But not before calling me a jerk about a hundred times.
I peeked an eye open and observed her frantic concentration.
“Do you still think I’m a jerk?” I asked weakly.
She mashed her lips and slowed the car down.
“We’re here,” she said, pulling over.
Dusk was about to set on the tiny nation as she helped me through a side door of the hospital and led me up the stairs.
I blacked out again.
When I woke up, I found a short man wearing a lab coat looming over me. Tess? Where was Tess?
Before I could react, I heard her voice beside me.
“How much longer, Doc?” she whined as the doctor scurried around us in the hospital room.
I moved, but something pinched my arm. I looked down and realized that Tess was manually transfusing her blood into my veins.
“I’m sorry? Are you really using that tone with the man who’s putting his license on the line to help you and your friend?” the doctor said.
I didn’t know this man, but if Tess trusted him then he had my full approval. I shifted and chuckled at her nervous voice.
“I apologize for her. She’s just a little on edge.”
“I can imagine,” the doctor glanced at our dirty faces and clothes.
He was clearly fishing but Tess and I kept our mouths firmly shut.
“Are you two still not going to tell me where you’ve been?” the doctor adjusted his glasses.
“Nope. Is it done yet?”
“Calm down, Tess,” I directed.
I could feel my strength returning. Soon, Tess’s blood would be unnecessary and my own would begin to regenerate.
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Tess frowned.
“Um,” the doctor played with his collar. “This would probably be a bad time to tell you that I called your parents.”
As if on cue, Mr. and Mrs. Hardey stormed into the room and fretted over their daughter. I said my greetings and then excused myself.
There was something I had to do.
“Thank you very much,” I shook the doctor’s hand as I left.
“Of course. Any friend of Tess is a friend of mine.”
“If you don’t mind, I need to head out now.”
“Wait,” the man in the lab coat insisted. “You’re still weak…”
“He’ll be fine,” Tess cut him off and blew me a kiss. “Be safe.”
“I will,” I nodded, astonished that she had expressed her feelings so clearly.
That was strange.
I slipped into the stairwell and focused on the warehouse. When I opened my eyes, I stood in the middl
e of the charred, windowless room.
I covered my mouth from the smoke and pressed my back against the wall as firemen and police officers strolled down the hall.
When they had gone, I moved through the space filled with crumpled sheetrock and tumbling cement.
The scent of wet machinery and grime filled the air. My shoes squeaked as I stepped on the muddy floor.
I saw the outline of a hand and my memories returned with clarity as I relived the experience that Tess had shared.
It bled like a movie through my mind. I stopped on one particular scene.
In the midst of the destruction and death, my face heated.
***
Crenley looked over her shoulder, but I saw no one but Tess. Death was at my door, but I had to tell her how I felt.
“I… love you,” I whispered as I gathered the last of my abilities. “Should… have said… earlier…”
“No, don’t say that. Please!” Tess cried. “You’re going to be okay. You’re going to walk out of here with me and I’m going to annoy you until your ship takes you home.”
***
I blinked and the memory cleared. Had I really laid it all on the line in such a desperate fashion? Heat rushed my cheeks but I ignored the sensation and focused on the scene ahead.
I took a step forward but rocked back on the tide of another memory.
***
Flames roared around like voracious beasts, their fiery tongues licking the walls. Tess bent down and kissed me. Hard.
“Get up, River. Please! You need to get up!”
I heard her from a far-away place but had no voice to speak.
“You crazy jerk!” she punched my chest. “Making me fall in love with you like this! Making me die like this!”
Her fists pummeled my torso and her tears slipped down my face. The desperate plea in her voice filled me with strength.
“Stop… hitting… me,” I croaked.
***
Loud footsteps broke the memory into fragments.
“Yeah, we’ll check the next room for the cause of the fire,” an officer said.
I sped out of the warehouse and made it safely outside before collapsing against a wall. I had confirmed it with my own eyes.
Crenley was dead. The war was over.
I got into my car and drove into the city. Jones’s phone rang and I picked it up.
“River?”
“Yes, I’m alive.”
