by Lizzy Ford
“This is most of it,” he said. “Knives and holsters in the bag.” He motioned to a gym bag. He picked up a small Beretta and walked to Amira. He tapped her arm and pointed to his mouth. “Can you use this?”
To Nathan’s surprise, she nodded. “Scott taught me,” she replied, referring to her previous guide.
Troy fished through the gym bag to find an over the shoulder holster for her. He put it on her carefully and slid the weapon into place, along with four extra clips.
Nathan watched, amused, as he selected the weaponry he wanted on hand. The rest would remain in the truck until needed. When he was satisfied with his firepower, he helped Troy take the heavy equipment to the truck. They packed up food and water next, along with extra clothing and shoes.
When ready, the three of them stood in the foyer, dressed for rain and war.
Nathan didn’t have to ask to know Troy was reconsidering allowing Amira to accompany them. As if suspecting the same, she slid her hand into her soul mate’s and looked up at him with a smile.
“I’m ready,” she said.
Troy sighed, defeated by her gentle influence. He squeezed her hand and led her out of the house, towards the truck.
Nathan trailed, his thoughts too dark for him to care that his best friend had found a new reason to live and would never be alone again.
They got in the truck, and a tense silence fell over them.
Amira gave Troy the location, which was around four hours away, and they left Troy’s house for a battle no one knew anything about.
Twenty
When they arrived, it was mid morning, though the dark sky and persistent rain made it seem closer to dusk. Troy pulled off the road far enough away not to draw attention and parked. He tossed Nathan a disposable phone.
“I’ll be back,” Nathan promised and hopped out of the car. He glanced up and down the quiet road before trotting across the street and into the forest on the other side. He was more fidgety than usual but didn’t reach for his cigarettes, not about to alert any scouts Zyra left in the forest. He would need one alive to question. Sneaking up was paramount.
He tugged the hood of his rain poncho up and cut a path quickly through the trees and mud. He reached a hill and zigzagged up it and paused at the top.
Though the trees, he spotted a burnt out cabin. He surveyed the area quickly to ensure none of Zyra’s people were lying in wait then maneuvered through the rest of the trees into the cleared area around the cabin.
The scents of charred wood and smoke were thick in the air. The cabin had burned and then been extinguished by the downpour sometime within the past day or two. Nathan scouted the area for any clues as to who had been there, and more importantly, whether or not there were bodies in the fire. If Zyra understood the portals were people, she wouldn’t have been in a hurry to murder Amira.
Dissatisfied with what he’d found, Nathan texted Troy an update and paused to look around.
Someone had been there. What had happened? Where did they go?
Was Kaylee present at one point?
I’m a day behind, maybe more, he thought with frustration.
His phone vibrated, and he shifted to view its screen within the safety of the poncho.
Amira says there’s a stone nearby. Can you see one? Troy had texted.
Nathan frowned. One stone among the ashes and rubble? He didn’t think it was possible for him to find.
He snapped a picture of the destroyed cabin and sent it back with a question mark, uncertain how to find a single rock in the charred remains.
We’re coming to you, was Troy’s response.
Nathan waited at the top of the driveway, wishing he could sense what Amira did or better yet, had an inkling about Zyra’s plans and how to run interference before it was too late.
Troy’s truck crunched over the gravel in the driveway. Nathan trotted forward and climbed into the back of the cab.
“Amira.” He touched her arm. “Where?” he asked when she looked at him.
“Not here,” she replied. “That way.” She pointed down the road.
Troy turned around and drove to the bottom of the hill before stopping.
Amira hopped out of the car.
Nathan went with her, aware of how tense Troy was when his soul mate left the vehicle. He was on the verge of sending her away, even before they’d run into any danger.
Amira leapt to the side of the ditch nearest the forest and slowed, observing the area around her as well as within the waters of the ditch.
Nathan trailed, also scanning the area for a glimpse of the stone she sensed.
She paused, her eyes going to a point in the distance. “I think it’s a few miles away. It’s very strong, though,” she murmured.
He motioned to the truck, and they both climbed in.
Troy drove them at a snail’s pace down the road. Amira’s head was tilted to the side as she sensed the stone they sought.
“Here,” she said finally, around seven miles from the cabin.
Her eyes fell to a trail leading into the forest. She leapt out of the cab and across the ditch.
It wasn’t the elusive stone that caught Nathan’s attention.
Blood. A lot of it.
He moved past Amira. Several bodies had been dragged down the path, leaving puddles and smears of blood that hadn’t yet been washed away by the rain. His pulse racing, he closed his eyes to focus on reading any energy lingering from the bodies that had passed through the area.
Guides. All of them, which explained why no drag marks left the trail. They had likely been gathered in one place to wait for them to heal enough to walk.
3G had been there.
Nathan returned to the mouth of the trail and waved for Troy to join them.
Amira was on her knees, searching small puddles and brush for what only she could sense.
“I found it!” she called triumphantly and rose. She held a small, bluish stone that glowed.
Troy joined them. “Whose is it?” he asked.
She squeezed it in her hand and frowned. “No images. If there are sounds, I can’t hear them. But I smell … dirt. It’s tugging me towards the east. Whoever it is, she’s not close.”
Disappointed, Nathan smiled tightly at her before moving into the forest.
“Something bad happened here, Troy,” he said.
“Guides?” His mentor had picked up on the blood and lingering energy. “Lots of them. Who … ah. Eddy? His group?”
“That’s what I’m thinking,” Nathan said. “There’s only one reason they’d have a firefight this close to the portal.”
“Kaylee was here.”
Nathan didn’t answer, his attention on identifying any other energy.
“The question is who has her?” Troy voiced his unspoken concern.
“3G took a beating, but that doesn’t mean they lost,” Nathan reasoned. “As much as I hate to say it, I hope Eddy won this round.”
“There’s another one,” Amira said and walked past him. She followed the trail for about a hundred feet.
Nathan trailed her, followed by Troy.
She stopped and searched the area around her feet before dipping her hand into a puddle. She lifted the stone and then dropped it with a gasp.
“What’s wrong?” Troy asked immediately.
Nathan nudged Amira. She wrung her hand, pulled the raincoat over her palm and reached down again. She grimaced when she straightened. In her covered palm was a two toned stone, half blue, half milky yellow.
As Nathan watched, a ribbon of black shifted across the surface of the stone.
“Kaylee,” Amira breathed. “And Shadowman.”
Nathan’s eyes went to her face. “Where?”
“A house. It’s raining outside. But something is wrong. This doesn’t feel right.” She peered at the stone.
Nathan released a breath in relief. The details were shoddy, but with some work, they might be able to figure out where the house was located.
&
nbsp; “I don’t think we need to go farther,” he said, motioning to the trail ahead of them.
“Agreed. I’m picking up nothing,” Troy said.
Amira’s eyes shifted from one of them to the other as they spoke. “I can find her,” she said eagerly. “Both of them are telling me to go east.”
“I’m not walking into a trap,” Troy said.
“Maybe I can identify landmarks from Kaylee’s stone. We’ll know what’s there before we arrive,” Amira suggested.
“There’s a diner down the road,” Troy said. “Let’s get warmed up and regroup.”
Restless to know more, Nathan nonetheless went along quietly. Amira could find Kaylee. Once he found his soul mate, he’d worry about how to rescue her from Eddy and what 3G was planning.
Troy drove them to the diner, a mom-and-pop spot with poor lighting and a smiling waitress. After taking their order, the waitress left them alone to talk.
Amira had placed the stone in a wad of napkins and was gazing at it intently.
“I see a man with blond hair tipped with black,” she said.
“Eddy,” Nathan murmured. “I guess that tells us who won the battle.”
“One guy took out all those guides?” Troy asked skeptically.
“He’s no normal guy. I guess he’s well known around these parts. Maggy and Zyra both have prices on his head. He’s not what we think,” Nathan said. “I sensed his energy. He’s not a normal second gen, which is what Maggy claimed him to be.”
“Was she lying?”
Nathan wanted to think Maggy hadn’t lied about everything, but he didn’t know anything for sure anymore. She had asked him to come to DC to help her find Amira and Kaylee. Was her primary concern discovering the gateway instead of protecting a first gen being hunted by 3G and the Satanist cult, as she claimed?
“You’re upset,” Troy observed.
“Yeah,” Nathan admitted. “I’m starting to think I was invited here under false pretenses. I could do what 3G couldn’t; spring Amira and reel in Kaylee. When I arrived, Maggy fed me some bullshit about hiding Kaylee from Pedro and the angel corps. Sounds like she was trying to fly under the radar instead.”
“What reason would the angels have to harm Kaylee?”
“She’s connected to the gatekeepers somehow and attached to Shadowman, who could ostensibly bring about the end of days,” Nathan replied. “That was enough for me to be cautious.”
“I would’ve done the same,” Troy said kindly. “You can’t know what’s in people’s hearts.”
“But I should have cared more. Asked more questions. Found alternatives.”
“You don’t get this far without regrets or fucking up every once in a while.”
Nathan nodded. “It’s my fault. I should have taken my duty more seriously.”
“We’re both working on making amends for our past.”
“Hopefully.” Nathan waved to get Amira’s attention. “What else?”
“Shadowman is a whisper,” Amira said. “Kaylee is inside, watching television. She’s … cold. Very cold. Eddy’s there. I see rain and the steeple of a church outside the window.”
Nathan and Troy both sat up straighter.
“Church,” Nathan repeated. “Do you think you’d recognize it, if you saw it in person?”
Amira nodded.
“Can you see anyone else? More cult members?”
She shook her head.
Troy was already Google-ing churches in northern Virginia. He began showing her pictures. Their shoulders were pressed to one another’s. Nathan smiled, suspecting neither of them understood how deep they already were. Even if they hadn’t kissed or spoken of it, they were already a team.
Troy would never make the mistakes Nathan did.
Amira pointed to one church steeple.
“Ugh,” Troy said and showed it to Nathan. “It’s plain and surrounded by subdivisions. If Eddy’s friends, or 3G, are hiding out in the ‘burbs, we won’t know until we’re in the middle.”
The waitress brought their food, and they subsided into silence.
As if they felt his urgency, the others ate as fast as Nathan.
Twenty minutes later, they were on the road again, speeding in the direction of the stones.
They reached the church two hours later and stopped in its vacant parking lot. Rain continued to pour down.
Nathan peered out the window and gritted his teeth. Troy hadn’t been joking about the church being surrounded by houses. The suburbs stretched for miles.
“We can narrow the neighborhood down by how much of the steeple Amira can see,” he said. “Still leaves us vulnerable.”
“Then we’re driving around and scouting out the exact location before we do anything,” Troy said and put the vehicle in gear. He left the parking lot. “Either way, we risk putting innocent people in danger, when we find her. What’s your plan?”
“Plan,” Nathan repeated. “At this point, it’s to do whatever we have to in order to free Kaylee.”
“So you don’t have a plan. Normally, I’m okay with that,” Troy said. “But you can’t live with hurting any innocent humans who might get in the way. We can’t break out a machine gun in a neighborhood like this, and we can’t risk Eddy or 3G freaking out and killing the neighbors, either.”
“I do have an idea,” Nathan replied. “It’s a bad one.”
Troy frowned and eyed him through the rearview mirror. “How bad?”
Nathan began removing his weapons and setting them on the seat beside him. He pulled off his poncho as well. “Depends on whether or not Eddy will shoot me on sight.”
“I think I can answer that question without you testing the theory.”
“Maybe. Maybe not. He knows I’m Kaylee’s soul mate. I’m not connected to Shadowman directly, but I’m connected to her. Shadowman won’t hurt me. He may advise Eddy not to as well.”
“Maybe. Might. These aren’t the kinds of words that fill me with confidence,” Troy said.
“We try it my way first. If that doesn’t work, you do it your way.”
Troy was quiet, clenching the steering wheel hard enough for his knuckles to turn white.
Nathan watched the houses as they crept by. He couldn’t help wondering – had he and Kaylee met under difference circumstances – if they would have ever had a shot at a happy, peaceful life in the suburbs.
In truth, he didn’t think he could bear such an existence, just imagining it. Then again, being around Kaylee made him forget the rest of the world. If he could spend every minute with her, would he really care where they were?
Did they ever have a chance at all? Not in this life, or so it seemed. He had yet to come up with a scenario where everyone walked away unscathed let alone alive.
There had never been a real plan to help her, he realized. Maggy’s ulterior motives had been impossible for him to know at the time. She had agreed to his idea, not because she wanted to help Kaylee, but because Zyra had a plan that likely required rendering Shadowman too weak to oppose her when she carried it out.
Nathan had been a pawn in their scheming, and he hated his weakness more than anything else. Had he been the man he was a thousand years ago, he never would’ve agreed to hurt Kaylee.
When exactly had he changed? Or had his transformation been so gradual, he didn’t notice it happening until the rude awakening a few weeks ago? Until realizing one of the two people he trusted most in the world had become disillusioned and abandoned her true duty?
Unable to identify which of his many shortcomings had led to this outcome, Nathan was able to assess the brutal truth. He’d fallen off the path as badly as Maggy, but he had the chance to make things right. To choose the right option. To follow Pedro’s guidance.
To become the kind of man Kaylee deserved.
He had been effective at his job his entire life. At one point, he had cared, too. That was what he needed to return to: the man capable of compassion as well as duty.
If Pedro wanted h
im to learn this lesson, he could have done it in a far less painful method.
Troy continued driving.
They wandered through several neighborhoods that ended in dead ends before finding the right road leading to the right house. This time, when Troy pulled off to the side, Nathan sensed Eddy’s faint but distinct presence without trying.
“No 3G. Doesn’t feel like anyone but Eddy,” Nathan assessed, reading the faint energy coming from the house.
“Doesn’t mean he won’t ambush you. I’ll give you ten minutes,” Troy said. “Then I’m coming in, guns loaded.”
Nathan left the truck and trotted to the house Amira had identified. He knocked at the front door and waited in the rain for someone to answer.
He wasn’t at all surprised when Eddy whipped the door open and then smiled.
“We have company!” he called over his shoulder.
Nathan didn’t trust the camp counselor act or smile. He recognized a killer when he saw one. Eddy’s stance was relaxed but balanced, a sign he could snap into action in a blink. He was also armed. Nathan counted three weapons: a firearm at Eddy’s ankle and two knives hidden at his waist. He wouldn’t put it past Eddy to be carrying more.
“I’m unarmed,” Nathan said and held out his arms.
Eddy patted him down quickly. He stepped aside for Nathan to enter and closed the door behind him.
“To what do we owe the pleasure?” Eddy asked, crossing his arms.
Nathan sensed Kaylee without looking. She was in the house, nearby. He yearned to go to her, to ensure she was safe.
“If I found you, 3G can, too,” Nathan replied. “What’re you doing so far from your home base, Eddy?”
“Waiting out the storm,” Eddy replied with a smile.
Nathan’s instincts nudged him about the assassin. The energy he’d picked up at the bunker – too old or different for him to place – swirled in the air around Eddy. It was subtle and fleeting, as if Eddy had the ability to suppress it. But it lingered in the house, as if it took effort to suppress it and Eddy didn’t always try to.
“I want to see Kaylee,” Nathan said quietly.
“You aren’t here to visit.”
“No, I’m not,” Nathan replied. “But I have a proposition you may be interested in.”
