I heard barking echoes through the growth. They were getting closer.
"We were the only ones who could absorb his power," she said. "We were the only ones who could use it."
I nodded, my mind racing along that path. "So we should be able to use it, shouldn't we? It's the same power. We're just in a different place."
She smiled. "Yes, I think that's it. We need to remember that. Come on." She got to her feet and grabbed my arm. We ran through the greenery, pushing past thick, heavy plants and through brush and bushes. The snarling and barking of the wolves was getting louder.
"Why should we run?" I asked.
"We need to last as long as we can," she replied. "We need to remember."
His power was our power. We could take his power. We could use his power. I kept repeating the words like a mantra, committing it not only to my mind, but to my soul. An ingrained message, an instinct. We needed to do better than to run. We needed to be able to fight.
We pressed on, dodging trees, seeking another escape. The wolves couldn't be far back, and now I could hear the laughter carried on the wind. He knew we were running. He was amused.
"There," Charis shouted, pointing at a climbable tree. "It won't keep us alive forever, but it will buy us some time."
I followed her to it and we scrambled up, finding a resting spot in a branch thirty or forty feet off the ground. A minute later the wolves arrived, barking and growling, claws scraping against the trunk of the tree, six in all.
"The power," I said. My breathing was heavy from the run and climb. I closed my eyes and focused, trying to find that river of energy I had grown to depend on. It wasn't there.
"It isn't in Purgatory," Charis said. "It's here. It has to be. It's all around us."
I looked up, trying to find the sky behind the trees. Was there a sky here, inside the Box? Or was it all a trick, a lie? I kept my eyes focused on it, refusing to blink though they became dry and scratchy. Was it like those posters that seemed to be just a pattern of color, but turned out to be the Statue of Liberty, or a sailboat? Was the power out there?
"Oh, Lannnnndddoooonnnn!" His voice echoed loudly, and he appeared at the base of the tree.
I didn't look down at him, but I knew he was there. I kept my eyes on the sky.
"Helllloooo?" He put a hand to the tree, and it began to shake. It took immense effort, but I didn't let it break my concentration. I could see a spot of blue through the canopy, and as I stared, it began to fade away, turning towards a dark purple.
"I've almost got it," I whispered, hoping Charis would hear me, and the Beast wouldn't.
"Hey, kid! What gives?" He kicked the tree, shaking it wildly.
I grabbed onto the branch I was sitting on for balance, but I didn't shift my eyes. They burned and teared, but I refused to break again.
"I'm going down," Charis said. "I'll see you soon."
We both knew he was going to kill us again. The only question was how much we would remember. The further we got, the better we might do. I felt the tree shift as she jumped down.
"Hey, asshole," she said.
"You're starting to like the pain, aren't you?" he said. "Have you ever been eaten alive before?"
The wolves snarled, and a moment later she was screaming, I could hear teeth smacking against bone.
"Landon, you really need to see this."
I felt his power, beckoning me to look. The sky had turned a deep hue of blue and red, and I could make out lines of power dancing along it. I focused there, like casting out a fishing line. I hooked one of the lines, and pulled.
I didn't look at him. I didn't have to. I brought my own power to bear, pressing it against his, and refusing him. Only then did I look down.
His smile was gone.
Charis was dead, her body a meal. It fueled my anger. I jumped down, landing lightly on my feet in front of him.
"That was faster than I expected," he said. He might not have been smiling, but he still didn't seem impressed. "Since you think you've got some balls now, let's see what you can do."
He stood there, hands at his sides. He eyed me calmly, waiting.
I felt the anger building, and his power with it. I felt it pouring into me, filling every cell of whatever I was in this place. I gathered it in, bringing it all to my hands. I held them out in front of me, and a ball of blue lightning began forming there, a bright ball of energy. His energy.
Ross waited, watching me with curiosity, but not fear. If I hadn't been so angry, I might have known better. If my heart hadn't been in control, I might not have made the mistake of throwing the lightning at him.
It launched forward, a solid stream of blue energy, arcing at him in a wide, round beam. It smacked into him, and vanished.
The laughter returned, deep and rich. He shooed a wolf away from Charis' head and lifted it up, showing it off to me. "It's still my power, kid. You can't hurt me with it."
He threw it at me. As it approached, the eyes and mouth opened, and a scream came out. I closed my eyes then, knowing it was over. The head exploded an inch away, converted to the lightning ball.
It washed over me.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Rebecca
I woke up around noon the next day with a terrible stomach ache. It was a new experience for me, to go through the weakness of human digestion, and I didn't enjoy it. I kneeled over the toilet, waiting for a sign that the burger and fries would be rejected, but in the end I was stuck with the discomfort.
It took almost ten minutes for me to shed all of Elyse's charms in order to shower. If I was going to get close to Sarah, I couldn't go in smelling like blood and fast-food. I washed the smells out, enjoying the feel of hands through long hair, and the sensation of the warm water on the body. I checked her over for cuts and bruises, finding only a small bit of discoloration on the wrist the were had grabbed. I shook my head, still not accustomed to the frailty of mortal flesh, and then shut off the water. Once I was dry, I let Elyse take over. I had taken the trinkets off, but I didn't know how to put them all back on in the right places.
"Nice work with that were," she said, once her voice was returned. She was fast putting her stuff back on. I assumed that was why she started talking. She wasn't ready to be an observer again quite yet.
"He was as agile as a rock," I said. The were really had been no match for anyone with skill. "You would have handled him just as easily."
"Maybe. I think the more important question is - what was he doing in a McDonald's looking for a toy? It's brazen, even for a were."
The thought had crossed my mind last night, before I had fallen asleep. What had he been thinking, stepping out into public like that? Weres could avoid humans all day, but attract too much attention and the angels would come looking for you. Attacking a mortal in a restaurant was the definition of attracting attention, and unless you were Great an angel versus a single were was always a win for the angel. Always.
"Something's happened to the angels," I said. "At least around here."
"That was my thought."
"Okay, but what?"
She wandered out into the bedroom and pulled a fresh pair of undies from the backpack. She slipped them on and then put yesterday's outfit on top. Traveling light meant wearing dirty clothes.
"The changelings?"
"Can't be. You saw the vampire back in Japan. He wouldn't hold his piss against a seraph."
"True. Hey, do you mind if I drive for awhile. It's a little boring, being-"
I shut her up by taking control. We weren't friends, we were business partners, and I wasn't interested in any efforts to change that.
There were police cars outside the McDonald's when I left, and they were talking to the cashier from the night before. I started towards the Porsche, until I saw they had recognized the stolen car too. An officer was standing next to it, on his radio while another man prepped it for towing. I cursed under my breath and headed back the other way. The parking attendant was sure to have described
my appearance to them, because I hadn't thought to glamour myself.
Out of view, I pressed the glove to my cheek and pictured a different face taking the place of Elyse's. Then I went one step further and put myself in uniform, peeking around the corner to make sure I got the details right.
There was no way to be sure it had worked, so I took a deep breath and stepped out from my hiding spot, trying to make it look like I had walked around from the other side of the building. In this form, the police made me more nervous than any were could. The Divine didn't care that much about bullets. I wished I could have said the same.
"What's the situation?" I asked, approaching the officer by the Porsche.
He looked at me, his head traveling up and down. "Are you one of the new recruits? I don't think I've seen you on this beat before?"
I smiled and nodded. "Officer Smith," I said. "I just got switched to days."
He rubbed his chin with his hand. "I'm surprised they let that go through. There's been a lot of crazy crap happening lately. Like that asshole that tried to rob the Mickey Dee's over there. He must have been on something, messing up the place and then taking off. I think he had an accomplice who stole this car from the airport too, but then they just leave it here? And then there was the guy who was eating there. He says some ninja chick was fighting with a werewolf, and that's how everything got trashed. We checked him for drugs, but he came up clean."
"Wow," I said. "That is crazy."
He laughed. "So, why did they send you over here? I think we've got everything under control."
I hesitated, but not long enough to make him suspicious. "They didn't send me. I was just on routine patrol, and I saw the action."
"Heh, yeah, I used to do that a lot when I was young. A few years, you'll realize that you're better off not knowing as often as you can get away with it."
I laughed along with him, and laid eyes on his squad car, trying to judge how far I could get before the other cops noticed. There was only one way out of this.
I let go of Elyse, feeling myself becoming immaterial again. With a final lucent thought, I aimed myself at the officer and pushed. We were so close, I was in him before he could take another breath. I clamped down on his soul, and shuddered as his memories flew through me. It was the emotions that always caused the most pain, and this guy had some pretty nasty ones. It gave me new respect and understanding for his earlier statement.
"Rebecca?" Elyse asked, looking at me. I knew she could See me through her Eye.
"Hey buddy," I said to the tow truck driver. He stood up to look at me. "You good?"
He gave me a thumbs up. "Yessir."
"Then I'm gonna take off. It's almost the end of my shift." I started walking towards the policeman's car, Elyse trailing behind. We got in and I drove us out of there, through the back so the other officers wouldn't see.
"That was fantastic," she said while we exited the parking lot and made our way back to the Long Island Expressway.
"It was necessary," I replied. My voice was thick and deep. "I didn't want them all chasing after us." I looked over at her. "When I let him go, you let him go. Got it?" I didn't want her killing a policeman. Talk about trouble.
"But-"
I slammed on the brakes, stopping the car in the middle of the road. Tires squealed behind us, but nobody raised a fuss. "The guy in the parking garage knows what you look like. You kill a cop, and we'll never get off this island."
She held up the hand with the glove, and waved at me. "Do you want to bet? This is war, Rebecca, and there's no room for compassion."
"How can you be such a hypocrite?" I asked. "You're as dirty as he is, if not more. You let me in on purpose. He has no choice."
She started to say something and then stopped, shrinking back into the seat. I accelerated gently, satisfied that I had won that round.
We were in Montauk three hours later. I'd lived in New York for all of my vampiric life, before going to Hell. The only two things I knew about the place was that there was a lighthouse at the end of it, and a lot of wealthy people lived nearby. I had been there once when I had been little. Merov had brought me to a large mansion on the oceanfront to meet with a lesser fiend. I didn't know what kind of business they had done that day, but we'd never gone back. I don't think Merov liked the sand that much.
We drove slowly down Main Street, watching the people walking past the rows of quaint shops and restaurants, as though Sarah was going to just appear out of thin air, maybe doing some antiquing or finishing up at one of the diners. I didn't see her, and I didn't see anything out of the ordinary. Everyone here was human, as far as I could tell.
"No idea where she's staying?" I asked.
"You heard Joe. The triangulation wasn't precise. She has to be in the area. The fact that there aren't any other Divine around only convinces me more."
"You think they're staying away?"
She nodded. "I wouldn't get to close to her, if I was Divine."
We pulled over into an empty spot on the side of the road. "It's time to ditch the car," I said. "I can put him to sleep for a little while. Plenty of time for us to disappear."
"Yeah, you're probably right." She closed her eyes and waited.
I sent a message to the officer that he was really tired, and needed to sleep for a while, and then I let him go. I floated away, back to Elyse. This time when we joined, it didn't hurt at all.
I left him sleeping there and started walking along the main strip, peering into the windows of the shops just in case Sarah was in one of them. She wasn't, but I hadn't expected it to be that easy.
"Where are you, Sarah?" I whispered under my breath. It had been two months. If the Divine were staying away right now, they wouldn't be forever. Maybe that was why she had reached out to Ulnyx?
I walked east along the strip once, not wanting to double back because I didn't want the officer to find me. He would wake up with a headache and no memory of what had happened to him, and probably just drive himself back home to deal with the consequences of vanishing like that. It was better than the Korean man had gotten.
Finding nothing in town, I headed south until I reached the beach. Seeing the pale sand brought back memories of that single trip I had made with Merov. I had never actually gone out onto it, because water and vampires didn't mix very well. That didn't matter now, and I walked forward, leather boots sinking into the sand. I bent down and picked some up, letting it slip through my fingers and feeling a sense of amazement at the stuff. For all of our strength, there were some places the humans did have us beat.
I continued east along the ocean, finding an almost instinctive enjoyment in the sound of the water crashing onto the sand. It was too cool for swimmers, but a lot of others were just walking, finding the same base comfort in the majesty of it.
I should have known He would bring me to Sarah, as soon as I forgot that I was looking for her.
CHAPTER NINE
Rebecca
She was standing on the beach, staring out at the ocean. She looked different from the last time I had seen her - older, heavier, more filled out. She was wearing a tight black turtleneck sweater and a pair of jeans, sunglasses over her empty eyes, her feet bare in the sand. She had cut her hair short, into a simple bob that really brought out the planes of her face.
I saw her head flick over towards me for just an instant, but she dismissed me as anything but another passer-by. Right now, I was. I kept my eyes forward, looking at her from the edge of my peripheral vision. The last thing I needed was for her to suspect me of anything.
She didn't move, or turn to watch me once I had gone by. She was looking out at the ocean, just another human contemplating their position in the universe, except her position was of more importance than any of theirs. I walked another fifty feet or so along the sand and then turned and sat cross-legged, keeping my own vision on the water and waves. I couldn't see her from here unless I brought my eyes all the way to the edge of the socket, but that meant I could
get a glance over from time to time.
I'd have to keep track of where she went, and follow behind. There was no way she had the Box on her, since her clothes were too fitted to disguise its size and shape.
The wind was cool on my face, and it raised so many emotions in me. Sorrow, regret, loneliness, anger. Regret was foremost. Hindsight was always twenty-twenty, but I never should have betrayed Landon in the first place. Looking back on it, I felt like I was someone else, trying to understand a person that I couldn't recognize. I only realized I was crying when I felt the sting of the air on the tears, and had to blink them away.
"Are you okay?"
I was surprised to have had someone sneak up on me. I had to resist the urge to reach for a weapon, and instead just slowly turned my head. Sarah was kneeling down next to me.
"Uh. Yeah. I'm okay." The words were quiet and forced. I felt my heart race. I was terrified.
"Do you mind some company?"
I swallowed the lump in my throat. "You want to sit with me?"
She shrugged. "You look like you could use it."
I didn't know what to do. If I turned her down, she might leave and I would have trouble following without raising suspicion. If I accepted, she might figure out there was something off about me.
"Uh. Okay. Sure. My name is Elyse, but you can call me Elle." I put out my hand.
"It's nice to meet you, Elle. I'm Sarah." She sat down on the sand next to me, leaving a few inches of space between us. "What are you doing out here?"
I had to close my eyes to catch myself. I felt the power of the Command even though it couldn't compel me. Elyse had been right about her not trusting anyone.
"I just came to think. I did something I wish I hadn't and now I have to deal with the consequences."
She smiled. "I know what you mean."
Of course she did. "You do?"
"I thought I knew what I wanted, but a good friend showed me how selfish I was being." She looked out at the ocean. "But not before they got hurt because of it."
"Are you sure you aren't talking about me?"
Bound (The Divine, Book Four) Page 5
