by Dean Murray
"I'm sorry, no disrespect was intended."
"That's a lie, Addison. I don't have to be a shape shifter to know that. You absolutely meant disrespect; you just didn't think that I would back up my earlier threat. You were testing me. The only question now is whether you've learned your lesson. Next time I won't be so generous as to offer you a phone when I kick you to the curb."
"I'm sorry, it won't happen again."
"It better not. I don't make idle threats and you just used up your one get-out-of-jail-free card."
The rest of the drive went about like would be expected after that heated confrontation. Dom made a couple of half-hearted attempts at breaking the strained silence and then just gave up. Addison and I exchanged the least number of words possible given that I was navigating and she didn't know where we were headed. The twenty-minute drive felt like it took an hour and a half before we finally arrived.
In all fairness, part of that was all of the precautions we were taking to avoid being followed and to hopefully make anyone trying to watch us using satellites lose track of us. I was glad we had Dom with us. I never would have spotted most of the opportunities she so effortlessly found.
After what felt like forever we finally pulled into the massive underground parking garage that Donovan and I had picked out before arriving in town. It was actually one of three separate locations where we were assembling before leaving town again.
Like everything else about the plan today, our decision to go with three different locations was the result of a long series of tradeoffs. It should mean that the Coun'hij would have a harder time finding us. The tradeoff in this instance was that if they did find one or more of the assembly points then we were going to be too spread out to offer any kind of effective resistance. Then again, with Alec still unconscious, we weren't in much of a position to fight off anything much tougher than a troop of Boy Scouts.
The biggest remaining concern that I'd had was whether or not the parking garage was going to have enough clearance for the RV's Donovan was supposed to have purchased. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the pair of long RV's idling in an empty corner of the lowest level of the structure.
Donovan met us within seconds of Addison pulling up next to the outside motorhome.
"I'm so glad you're all okay. You didn't run into any problems?"
"No, let's get Alec into whichever RV you've picked out for him. I want him out of sight before everyone else shows up."
"Very good, Mistress Paige." Donovan helped Dom open up the back of the van and then paused for a moment. "I didn't anticipate how hard it would be to see them all there unconscious like that. They are three of the people who've contributed these last twenty years to making the estate feel like home. So much changed the night that Master Kaleb died and yet not these three, not Rachel. I will truly miss the time that Andrew and I spent tending the grounds at the estate."
I put a hand on Donovan's shoulder. "We'll go back and rebuild when this is all over."
"Yes, Mistress Paige, I expect that we will go back and I expect that we will rebuild, but it won't be the same. The old house is gone and the grounds were devastated by the fire and the emergency crews."
"You're right, Donovan, it won't be the same. It's going to be better. Andrew is going to be able to walk around the grounds with you rather than being confined to a wheelchair, and you won't spend every minute of every day wondering if Brandon or the Coun'hij are only hours away from destroying everything you've worked towards."
Donovan squared his shoulders and nodded. "Indeed you are right. I'm sorry to wax sentimental. Let's put Master Alec in the outside vehicle. They are identical from the outside, but the interior of that one is several steps better than the other one. It will make for a much better mobile command center."
Donovan and Dominic picked up the sheet and carefully carried him towards the designated RV. I hurried on ahead of them to make sure that the doors were all open, and then once I was satisfied that they were, I went back out to the van.
Addison was still standing at the back of the van as though not sure what to do. I stopped next to her and then pointed at Mrs. Graves. "I don't think I can manage Jess' dad, but I'm game to help carry in Alec's mom if you are."
She hesitated for just a second and then nodded. "I could probably carry her in by myself, but it would be very undignified. If you'll get her legs then I'll get her shoulders."
Once we were inside, Donovan motioned us into a tiny bunk room that butted up against the master bedroom. It was a shrewd choice for him to have picked this RV given that Andrew and Samantha weren't going to be complaining about cramped sleeping arrangements anytime soon. I was however surprised to find that they had put Alec in the bottom bunk.
"That's not going to work, Donovan. Alec needs to sleep in the master bedroom."
"I understand your hesitancy to usurp the master bedroom, Mistress Paige, but Alec won't know the difference. Not only that it will go a long ways towards cementing you as the leader of the core leadership group."
"I understand, Donovan. It also means that you've got everyone who needs constant care all in one place, but I'm not going to kick Alec out of his bedroom. Please move him in there so that we can go get Andrew."
For the briefest of moments it almost seemed like Donovan was going to argue with me, but in the end he nodded and Dom stepped forward to help him lift Alec. A couple of seconds later Alec was in the bed and Donovan headed back out to help Addison with Andrew.
Dominic slowed down as she walked past the sniper rifle that Donovan had carried away from the failed ambush in Idaho. I didn't even begin to have an idea what kind of expression Donovan had received when he had carried that into the RV dealership on foot.
"Where did that come from? I don't remember that being standard issue for Alec's bug-out vehicles."
"It's not, but after the last little while I think it probably will be. That's the rifle that the Coun'hij operator used to shoot Alec. Donovan circled around behind the sniper, killed him, and then put down most of the next batch of arrivals without even blinking. I never would have guessed that Donovan was such a crack shot."
Dominic smiled. "I learned long ago never to underestimate Donovan, but even so he still manages to surprise me on a fairly regular basis. I'm starting to wonder if there's anything that he doesn't know how to do."
Donovan and Addison were back with Andrew and Donovan shook his head as though embarrassed. "There are an infinite number of things that I'm unable to do at all and even more things that I'm unable to do well, Mistress Sanchez, as you well know. Mistress Paige, it appears that the first of our people have just arrived."
I nodded and headed back outside, passing another set of three wooden bunks on my way out and a small area that contained a kitchenette, a table and a small desk that was done in the same dark knotty alder as the rest of the trim.
The next half hour went better than I'd worried it might. Mallory had split everyone into groups of two or three and assigned them to meet up with one of the teams responsible for procuring new vehicles so that gear could be transferred at suitably low-key locations similar to the overpass where Ruby and I had met up with Dominic and the others.
Nobody had been given the option of picking their own groups, which we hoped would reduce the likelihood of a Coun'hij spy taking the opportunity to pick up another phone. All that was left was to see whether our plan had worked.
I'd half expected our people to come back tired and cranky from their various assignments, but they were almost uniformly in good spirits and it only took me a couple of minutes to realize why. It was the new vehicles. Mallory had sent people to three different lots and each team had negotiated a discount for purchasing several brand-new vehicles at the same time. I'd made it clear to everyone before we split up that the new vehicles were going to be theirs to keep, since I was making them abandon their original cars.
If I'd stopped to think about what that meant I might have anticipated
that the announcement might have a positive effect on the guys, but even then I would have been surprised by how much of an impact it ended up having on the females. Maybe it was just because I'd never owned a vehicle of my own. I'd barely been able to drive before Dad and Cindi had been killed in the car accident and after that I hadn't had much of an inclination.
Apparently the new vehicles were all upgrades over what everyone had owned before and that had bought me an incredible amount of goodwill. It was a good lesson for me to have driven home.
The Graves fortune was the next best thing to limitless, which meant that I could fund nearly any conceivable spend for as long as I cared to, but I was under no illusions as to how long the goodwill would last. You couldn't keep throwing money at people and expect it to keep them happy forever. At some point they would have everything they wanted and the money would stop motivating them.
Alec had said at one point that Ulrich Bishop used his fortune to keep an equilibrium inside of his pack, but he obviously knew something that I didn't. For now I just circulated among the returning shape shifters and checked up on them. I didn't say anything to remind them that I was the source of their good fortune, but I figured it couldn't hurt for them to associate my presence with the near euphoria they were feeling at that moment.
Fifteen minutes after the first car rolled in we were all ready to get back on the road. James and Ruby were the last two to arrive and I saw James give the black van he'd come to town in a sad look just before he boarded the command RV.
"Don't worry, James. Your Accord will be waiting for you when you go back to wherever you left her."
"Maybe, but I'm not going to count on it. I put a ton of time into that machine and I'm really going to miss it."
"When this all blows over, if your car really is gone, I'll buy you something with even more potential to modify. If it's still there then I'll buy you a new turbo or something else that's nice and shiny."
That earned me a smile. "If we make it through this I'm going to hold you to that promise and it's going to be something very shiny."
"Don't think he's joking about that, Adri. Some of the parts that James has been talking about putting on his car are ridiculously expensive."
I turned back to Dom and smiled. "I'll actually be kind of disappointed if he doesn't come up with a part that is roughly as expensive as most new cars."
James rolled his eyes at Dom and me, but the gentle chiding seemed to have cemented his good humor. Donovan came out of the bedroom with his burner phone in his hand.
"I'm sorry to intrude, but I've now heard back from the other assembly points. They are both ready to go and it's past time for us to be on the road. If I can slide past you all, I'll go start up the engine to our vehicle and we can be on our way."
Ruby had followed James into the RV a little hesitantly—almost as though not entirely sure she was still welcome. She opened her mouth as though planning on offering to drive, but Addison beat her to it.
"I'll drive, Donovan. You have other things you need to be doing and it's not as though Samantha is going to need me for the next little while."
She said it with a kind of nonchalance that I knew had to be on purpose. Only time would tell whether or not Addison had really turned over a new leaf, but the offer to drive had the feel of an apology to it. I nodded my agreement and then turned to Dom.
"I'm sorry to push, Dom, but would it be possible for you to try to heal Alec now?"
Dom looked like she wanted to refuse, but I knew that wasn't because she was unwilling to help. Dom always wanted to help, but she was terrified of failing yet again. After a second she nodded, but her eyes were bright, almost like she was fighting back tears.
I waited until we'd made it back to the bedroom and shut the door before saying anything.
"It's going to be okay, Dom. Even if you can't heal him we aren't going to kick you to the curb. We all loved you even before you started being able to heal people. It's a useful skill for you to have—one that's saved a lot of lives already—but that isn't why we are your friends."
"But what if I fail and then Alec dies because of me?"
"I don't know what's going to happen, Dom. I keep thinking that it's impossible for Alec to die now that he's made it this long, but Donovan is still really skittish about the state of Alec's heart. What I do know is Alec dying—if that's what really happens—isn't going to be your fault. I would love for you to get to the point where your power came when you called it, but if you're not there yet then you're not there. Just give it your best shot."
Dom reached over and gave my hand a squeeze. "You always seem to see exactly the thing that is bothering me. Thank you for the vote of confidence, I'm ready now."
I nodded as she released my hand and then knelt down next to Alec's bed. Dom gently rested her hands on the bare skin of Alec's chest and then she closed her eyes and slowed down her breathing.
Time seemed to grind to a standstill. I'd been present the last time Dom had healed someone, and that time the people she touched had gotten incredibly hot while she'd healed them. I wanted to get up and move closer so that I would be able to tell if Alec's skin started to heat up, but at the same time I was terrified of breaking her concentration.
Dom could be shockingly self-confident regarding certain things, but her healing ability wasn't one of them and despite my words earlier, a very tiny part of me was worried that each failed attempt at healing reduced the chance that she would ever be able to heal again. At some level, if you believed that you really couldn't do something, it was bound to eventually become a fact.
If Dom could get her gift under control then the possibilities were almost endless, but I wasn't thinking about all of the people she could save. I was thinking about Alec, about the fact that I needed him to live, that while I might be able to guide our people into hunting Dream Stealer down and killing him, there wasn't anything I could do to fix Alec's heart if it really was only seconds away from tearing itself apart.
The RV rumbled into motion, but I barely noticed. All of my attention was focused on Dom and I barely even breathed because I was so worried about disturbing her. Minutes stretched into what felt like hours with no discernible change in Alec's condition.
I was nearly ready to tell Dom that she could stop trying, that we would wait and try again tomorrow, when I felt something happen. It was hard to describe and it was so subtle that I almost didn't notice it. The air picked up a faint hum at the same time that the tiny hairs on the back of my neck all stood on end.
Dom hadn't moved at all, but for the briefest of instants it almost seemed as though she expanded to the point where she took up the entire room. Despite my earlier determination not to jostle Dom's elbow, I opened my mouth to ask her what was going on, but before I could get the words out she collapsed to the side, hands sliding off of Alec as her body hit the carpeted floor underneath her.
Her lips were blue and she wasn't breathing. I screamed for Donovan as I tried to start mouth to mouth on her.
Chapter 11
Adriana Paige
Interstate 70
Eastern Colorado
I thought we were going to lose Dom. I'd had a CPR class back in Minnesota as a way of getting extra credit in one of my classes, but I barely remembered any of it. For all I knew, I was doing more harm than good, and it seemed to take forever for Donovan to arrive.
I could tell that I was in shock. I was barely functioning, but I still managed to tip Dom's head back and breathe into her mouth several times before the bedroom door opened behind me. Moving with the speed of a shape shifter and the economy of a practiced professional, Donovan knelt down at my side and straightened out Dom's body so he could start doing chest compressions as soon as I paused the rescue breathing.
"James, Ruby, I need one of you in here now! Adri, stop."
I pulled back from Dom and Donovan started doing chest compressions as I heard James' heavy footfalls as he ran towards us.
"Get t
he crash paddles charging! Adri, go."
I'd been staring at Dom rather than counting compressions like I should have been, so Donovan's order to resume rescue breathing caught me by surprise. I bent down and put my mouth over Dom's as James reached us.
"Where are they?"
"In the plastic case on the other side of the bed—no, curses, that was the other RV. They should be here somewhere, Mallory assigned someone to make sure that they were moved out of the old vehicle. My turn, Adri."
The sound of ripping cloth next to my ear nearly drowned out the order, but once again I moved out of the way as Donovan resumed compressions on Dom. Another set of footsteps approaching from the front of the motorhome momentarily threw me for a loop. I hadn't felt Addison stop the vehicle, which meant that it couldn't be her.
"Here. It was in that load of gear that was dropped off just before we left the garage."
Ruby's voice was the most welcome sound I could imagine hearing at that moment.
"Thank heaven. Get them charging, it's the—"
"I know, the switch on the top…charging."
The whine of the charging paddles nearly drowned out Addison's yell from the front of the RV.
"Tell me what's going on. Is she going to be okay?"
"Your turn, Adri. We're doing everything we can, Addison. Ruby, I need the gel."
Something cold and wet splashed onto my cheek as I finished my second breath and then Donovan was pulling me backwards as Ruby leaned in.
"Clear!"
The thumping sound of the defibrillator discharging was jarring, but it was nothing compared to the way that Dom's body bounced on the carpet as the electrical jolt caused preternaturally strong muscles to instantly contract. Ruby had positioned herself so as to get nearly her entire bodyweight resting on Dom's chest, but even with that she was still thrown back into Donovan and me with enough force that I hit the wall behind me.
James stepped forward and steadied the two of us as Donovan placed his fingers on Dom's wrist to check whether or not the shock had worked. A second later that question was answered as Dom started breathing on her own again.
