by J. T. Bishop
He got her into the bathroom and eased her into the tepid water. She made a low throaty sound but remained still.
“Thanks,” whispered Hannah as Ramsey turned to leave. “I’ll take it from here. I’ll let you know when we’re done.”
Ramsey caught a fleeting glimpse of Sarah as she lay in the bath before Hannah closed the door.
“Hey,” he said to Hannah.
She pulled the door back open enough so that she could see him. “Yes?”
“Thanks for this.” He didn’t know what had touched him. He cleared his throat. “I appreciate it.”
Her eyes softened. “You’re not as big of a jerk as you make yourself out to be, Mr. Ramsey.” She smiled. “And you’re welcome.” With that, she shut the door.
Ramsey stood there a moment with his hand on the door, unmoving. Then he turned and walked back into the kitchen, thinking he could really use a drink.
“Well, that was a touching moment if ever I saw one,” said a voice from behind him. “What, are you going soft on me, big bro?”
Ramsey jumped at the sound, whirled, and faced the voice coming from the other side of the room. His brother—correction, stepbrother—Declan had finally joined the party.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
* * *
AT THE AGE of twelve, John Ramsey lost his father in an automobile accident. It had devastated Ramsey. Up until that point, the Ramsey clan had been a close-knit group. Ramsey had idolized his engineer father, who’d worked as a science professor at the local university. He’d coached Ramsey’s baseball team and taken him to professional games whenever the local team was in town and they could convince Ramsey’s mother to let them go.
Ramsey grew up as a typical Eudoran child on a host planet; his parents had kept no secrets and had raised him with the history, abilities, and culture of his people. He, like all Eudoran kids, never spoke of it outside the family walls. Eudorans were born with an innate understanding of when to keep things secret. Not that he had the need to share it. Earth was all he knew. Neither he nor his parents had ever visited their home planet. Ramsey, like his parents, were Eudoran descendants born on Earth. It had been decades since any Eudoran had traveled to their home planet, and they had accepted that they would likely never return, though they carried the secret hope that one day that opportunity would present itself again. No matter how long a Community lived on another planet, the desire to see home again remained with each member.
After his father’s death, his mother retreated from their normal outgoing, social way of life into her own private world. Ramsey was left on his own to figure out how to cope without a father. He longed to find his place in a home that now felt foreign to him. He found only a small measure of peace when he was able to sneak out of his house, grab his baseball bat, and go hit some balls at the local batting range. His mother could not abide it, though. The memories were too hard.
Two years after his dad’s death, his mother unexpectedly remarried. She had met a man who had proposed to her six months after meeting her. Ramsey’s anger consumed him. In his mind, she had betrayed his father and dishonored his memory. He hated his stepfather. Worse, his stepfather had a son two years younger than Ramsey, and he hated him too. By then, Ramsey was fourteen and had all the attributes of a teenager out of control. He’d skip school, ignore homework, break curfew, and he became a total nightmare to his mother. After he was arrested at the age of eighteen for drinking under age and driving under the influence, his stepfather kicked him out, and his mother didn’t stop him. Ramsey hadn’t cared, or if he did, he refused to show it. He was ready to leave anyway. If it hadn’t been for his grandmother, his father’s mother, he would have never survived his teenage years. Without her, he would have undoubtedly ended up in jail, hanging out with Earth and Eudoran losers alike.
His grandmother had opened her home to him and allowed him the space he needed to grieve for his father without putting her needs before his. She had let him be as angry as he needed to be at the world, and she never judged or labeled him as anything other than her grandson. It was something he was grateful for every day of his life. Because of her influence, he had become the man he was today. He thought of her as he eyed his stepbrother across the room and wondered what advice she would offer at this particular moment. He doubted she would approve of the scenario playing out in his head. She’d always had a soft spot for Declan. She acknowledged that he was no more to blame for the destruction of Ramsey’s family than Ramsey had been. But Ramsey had not been able to see it that way. He had not seen his stepbrother in two years and had planned not to see him for several more. Obviously, that plan had failed.
Both brothers took a moment to size each other up, neither saying a word after the initial introduction. Declan was much as Ramsey remembered him. He was of similar stature to Ramsey, but fairer, with shorter sandy-brown hair and dark blue eyes, as opposed to Ramsey’s longer wavy black hair and brown eyes. Where Ramsey had excelled at wrestling and baseball, Declan had excelled at swimming and track. They were both smart and successful in their fields, but in completely opposite ways. Declan was a planner and studier; Ramsey went with his gut and made decisions on the fly. The strengths each man possessed were a source of complete irritation to the other. They were the proverbial opposites, one salt and the other pepper.
Ramsey broke the silence first, saying in a whisper, “Keep your voice down.” He stifled the urge to say something more vitriolic, but he needed to stay focused and not let his emotions get the better of him.
“What?” asked Declan.
Ramsey made the “shh” gesture by putting his index finger over his pursed lips. It was not the gesture he wanted to use, but again he reined in his initial inclination. No need to stir the pot.
He waved Declan toward the other side of the house, and Declan followed with a puzzled expression.
They moved to the office, away from the back bathroom. Ramsey closed the doors to the room. Once inside, they faced each other.
“Declan,” Ramsey stated, crossing his arms.
“John,” Declan replied with the same tone. He paused before speaking again. “You want to tell me why we’re talking like we’re in a chapel? You suddenly become pious?”
Ramsey didn’t respond to Declan’s wisecrack. “It’s my assignment. She’s going through a Shift. She’s extremely sensitive to sound at the moment. Just thought you might like to consider staying quiet for once.”
Declan snickered, but his expression quickly sobered. “No problem,” he said more quietly, eyeing his stepbrother. “If you can do it, then I certainly can.”
“Good,” responded Ramsey, and he moved to walk away.
“Hey, you think you could take a moment out of your busy schedule to get me up to speed?”
Ramsey stopped and turned back. “What, Morgana didn’t give you all the juicy details?” He could feel the building irritation, which always flared upon seeing his stepbrother.
Declan narrowed his eyes as his own temper sparked. “No, she didn’t. This was a rush job. She only told me to get here fast and discreetly. I didn’t even know it was you until I arrived.”
It was Ramsey’s turn to snicker. “Just like Morgana.”
“She has her charm,” replied Declan.
“Not the word I would use, but then you always were the more appropriate one.”
Declan chewed on that. “I was at that. You, on the other hand, well, you always lacked that particular quality, didn’t you, bro?”
Ramsey held his breath. “Guess it had something to do with the company I kept.”
Declan remained calm, but the tension radiating from him grew. “Yeah.” He paused. “Must have been terrible hanging out with such an ‘appropriate’ brother, huh? I mean after all, I am the one who had the dad, right?”
Ramsey stilled but spat back, “You want a blue ribbon, bro? Because your dad sure as hell didn’t deserve one.”
They stood stiffly and eyeballed each other as the tensio
n conveyed messages of past contention that both would rather forget.
Ramsey acknowledged the stupidity of the argument. He didn’t need this complication right now. He forced himself to relax. They were both here to do a job; surely they could handle themselves professionally while in the same room. He took a deep breath.
Declan watched Ramsey and picked up on the energy shift. He adjusted his energy to meet Ramsey’s calmer state. “We good?” he asked, taking his own deep breath.
Ramsey relaxed his posture and eased up on his evil-eye stare. “As long as I’m on this assignment, Declan, I got no beef with you. I just need you to do your job, and I’ll do mine. Everything else is for another day. You can handle that?”
Declan followed Ramsey’s lead and collected himself. “I can handle that. Just tell me what we’re dealing with here.”
Ramsey told Declan about the situation. At the mention of Sarah’s Shift and subsequent kidnap attempt, Declan looked puzzled. He let Ramsey finish his account before he asked the obvious question. “So what’s special about her?”
Ramsey anticipated he’d have trouble keeping Sarah’s secret from Declan. The man was an energy-reading machine. He debated not telling him, but decided it was futile. He chose to be honest.
“We think she’s a Red-Line.”
“A what?” asked Declan.
“A Red-Line.”
“How do you know that?”
“You think Morgana would have sent you here otherwise? I’ve handled plenty of difficult shifts, and as far as I can remember, I’ve never needed your assistance before now.”
“And it’s killing you, isn’t it, me helping you?”
“I’m slowly dying as we speak. You weren’t my first choice.”
“Of course I wasn’t.”
“Hannah, the lady helping Sarah right now, doesn’t know.”
“That I wasn’t your first choice?”
“No, stupid. About Sarah.”
Declan wondered about that. “You think she won’t know eventually? She’s bathing her. At some point, she’ll be an idiot if she doesn’t figure it out.”
Ramsey realized what Declan meant, and he felt like an idiot for not thinking of that himself. “So I’ll deal with that when the time comes.”
“I’m sure you will.”
“So what are you going to do?” Ramsey asked.
“What I always do. Keep my clients safe.”
Ramsey didn’t respond. He didn’t know if he was included as one of Declan’s clients or not, but it didn’t matter. He just wanted Sarah to be protected.
“Just do me one favor,” requested Declan.
“What’s that?”
Declan eyed him. “Don’t compromise yourself for her. You’ll end up getting yourself killed.”
Declan’s apparent concern surprised Ramsey, but his interference annoyed him. “Don’t worry about me,” he scoffed. “I don’t plan on doing you any favors.” As he turned to leave, he looked back at Declan, who watched him with an unreadable expression. He spoke plainly. “Let’s get to work.”
**
THE NEXT TWENTY-FOUR hours passed quickly. After the bath, Sarah’s mental alertness improved. She managed to use the restroom and even walk into the adjoining bedroom under her own power. She’d depleted her strength by then, though, and needed Hannah’s help to get redressed and Ramsey’s to carry her back to the master bedroom. Her noise sensitivity had lessened enough for them to speak quietly to her. Once back in the bed, she drank water but refused to eat anything.
Ramsey created a pallet for himself on the floor next to her. He argued with Hannah about getting sleep and insisted he would be fine in the room with Sarah, but she disagreed. They finally compromised, agreeing to rotate watches as long as Hannah promised that she would wake him if there were any changes in Sarah’s condition.
That night, Ramsey took the first watch, and he lay restlessly on the floor near Sarah’s bed. He could hear her labored breathing, but she slept. He wondered where Declan was. After their conversation earlier, the man had disappeared. He had met and spoken to Hannah, but that had been the extent of his conversation with either of them. Ramsey could only assume that his stepbrother’s senses were on high alert and he didn’t want any distractions.
After his five hours were up, he relinquished his spot to Hannah and headed to a back bedroom to sleep. He expected to toss and turn but was out the minute he hit the pillow. He awoke six hours later to the sunlight streaming through his window. Jumping out of bed, he found Hannah sitting with Sarah, keeping her cool with a wet cloth. Her temperature had spiked again in the night, and he argued with her about waking him, but she argued back that he needed the rest and that she was capable of handling a fever. He conceded the argument and admitted that the rest had helped, and Hannah let him take over with Sarah so she could make breakfast. The rest of the morning passed without incident. Declan appeared out of nowhere to eat something but then disappeared again to make his rounds. Ramsey had no idea if he’d slept or not.
Sarah remained quiet but restless throughout the day. She frequently slipped into incoherent states and would rant about numerous things, none of which made sense to anyone. She still refused to eat but continued to drink water. Ramsey’s lack of knowledge about Red-Lines and how they shifted troubled him as he cared for her. All he could do was wait and watch.
They went through the bathing ritual again the second day. Hannah thought it would help reduce Sarah’s temperature, and it had seemed to calm her and improve her lucidity the night before. It did both again. Sarah looked better and was able to move around on her own for a few short minutes afterward, before succumbing again to weakness. She said nothing about her condition to Ramsey during these moments. It was as if she had totally entrusted herself to him and put her recovery completely in his and Hannah’s hands. He felt humbled by her faith in him, considering all she’d endured in the last forty-eight hours.
That night, he took the second watch. He slept for five hours and replaced Hannah to let her sleep. Again, Sarah slept restlessly and murmured softly to herself. As he lay on the pallet, he reached out to her energetically even though he knew it was discouraged to connect with a Shifter. Their energy was highly unbalanced, and they could sap a Protector’s strength if they weren’t careful. Or it could compromise the Shifter if they fed on energy that did not benefit them. His curiosity and worry had gotten the better of him, though. Was there something she needed? Was he doing enough?
Her energy felt chaotic and tumultuous. He couldn’t get a clear connection, and she withdrew from him, sensing his presence. He probed deeper, not wanting to invade her privacy, but still curious about this ability of hers to shut him out. She rewarded him with a full frontal assault as he was shoved back energetically with force. His eyes shot open, and he took a breath, realizing then that his presence, at least the non-physical version, was not welcome. If she needed him to know something, then she wasn’t sharing. Despite the result, the experience provided him with insight into a Red-Line’s ability to manipulate and direct energy, and it impressed him.
He lay there, reeling from the energetic encounter, and stilled when he heard a noise in the room. Ramsey sat up to see Declan standing by the bed.
“What is it?” asked Ramsey.
“Someone’s watching the house.” Declan stood at alert in the shadows as all his senses tuned in to the potential threat.
“You sure?”
Even in the dark, Ramsey knew that Declan looked at him as if to say, “Really?”
Ramsey got the point and stood up. “What do you want to do?”
Declan was quiet but firm. “Stay with her. I’m going take a look around. Stay aware. I’ll let you know if I need you to move.”
“Okay.” Ramsey knew he would pick up on Declan’s warning. Despite their past differences, they had spent enough time together to recognize each other’s energy signature. If Ramsey had not been tuned into Sarah, he would have picked up on Declan�
�s approach much faster.
Declan left, and Ramsey waited. He remained by the bed in case he needed to grab Sarah and exit fast. He tuned his senses and focused on the house and the surrounding area. He picked up on nothing, though. That was Declan’s area of expertise.
Five minutes passed, then ten. Sarah stayed restless but never awakened. Another ten minutes passed. Ramsey had almost decided to go check things out for himself when he felt Declan’s presence.
“They’re gone,” Declan whispered as he reentered the room.
“They? How many?’
“Two, near as I could tell.”
“Did you see them?”
“No. They took off as I got close.”
“Do you think they knew you were there?”
“I don’t think so. I kept myself shielded. Even so, we better prepare.”
“Prepare for what?” asked Ramsey.
Even in the lightless room, Ramsey could feel Declan’s stare. “They’ll be coming. I didn’t see them, but I felt them.” Declan’s energy intensified. “They want her, John. And they don’t intend to leave without her. You understand what I’m saying?”
Ramsey knew immediately. They planned to take Sarah, and they didn’t care who got in the way when they did. Ramsey looked at Declan through the darkness. “Then let’s batten down the hatches,” he said.
“Absolutely.”
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
* * *
THE NEXT MORNING, Ramsey, Hannah, and Declan sat at the kitchen table. Breakfast was made, but no one ate.
The rest of the night had passed without interruption. Ramsey kept watch over Sarah while Declan continued surveillance, although Declan believed that the immediate threat had passed. Once dawn arrived and Hannah was up, they scrambled up some eggs, put on some coffee, and sat her down to discuss the situation and their options. None of them were promising, but at least Hannah chose to remain instead of heading for the door. Ramsey admired her for that. Thirty minutes later, the eggs were cold and they were no closer to an answer when Declan announced an impending arrival.
