04 Last

by Lynnie Purcell

  My body was another study in change. I was strong, though the strength went beyond muscles and stamina. I could defy the very laws of physics. Normal rules of pain and punishment did not apply to me. I could endure a fall from an airplane or a train crashing in to me. I was Superman, without the cape and tights. I was sore from the pain that had made its rounds through my muscles and veins, but I felt I could do anything. There were no boundaries. The world did not hold the same fears as before. The earth was not as strong as I was.

  My breathing was different, controlled. I needed less air to accomplish the same tasks I had been doing my whole life. Even though I had just been stopped from a rampage of what looked like epic proportions, I was barely winded. I could have held my breath for thirty minutes easy.

  My eyesight was incredible. The world around me was dark. There were no lights on, nothing to give away our position. The darkness did not prevent me from seeing the room, the broken mannequins and every feature on Daniel’s face as he looked at me. His green eyes, his pale white skin, his midnight hair, and the curves on his face – I had never seen him so completely. My new eyes gave me a view of him that my old eyes had missed. He was beyond beautiful; he was flawless. And he had stayed. Throughout the pain and the anger, he had protected me.

  He didn’t let up on his hold of me as I took stock of my body. He doubted I was in control. I didn’t blame him for his doubt. I wasn’t entirely sure if I had control of my emotions either. They felt raw and exposed. My uncertainty did not stop me from taking advantage of his closeness, though. I moved up and kissed him. It was perfection in a moment. I felt some of his tension drain out of his body at the touch of my lips on his. He released my wrists and allowed for the kiss to take him over. He pulled back after only a moment. He had more on his mind than the first kiss in a new body.

  “Are you okay?” he asked me.

  It was difficult to articulate the way I felt. Even my advanced brain couldn’t come up with the proper way to describe what I had gone through.

  “I’m…different,” I admitted.

  “Yes,” Daniel agreed.

  “I’m also sorry,” I said.

  “For what?” he asked.

  “For losing control,” I said. “And for changing before I was supposed to.”

  “Two things you could not help,” Daniel pointed out.

  “I’m sorry all the same,” I said.

  Daniel smiled and moved to help me stand. His hand on mine actually burned with the electricity generating between us. My skin was more sensitive, more aware of my environment. The electricity was no longer just coming from him – I was creating my own. I sizzled with the heat of it. As I stood, the door opened, and I saw Serenity. She was wearing jeans and a t-shirt, a habit that had developed during the course of her time with us. Her golden eyes took me in; it was a look that suggested she knew exactly what I had gone through.

  “Welcome back,” Serenity said.

  “Thank you.”

  She had not come to check on me. There were bigger issues on her mind.

  “Still no word from Reaper?” Serenity asked Daniel.

  Daniel shook his head.

  “Nothing,” Daniel said.

  “Alex and the others haven’t heard anything either,” Serenity added.

  “Is Alex here?” I asked.

  I looked down at my body, which didn’t look as different on the outside as I felt on the inside. I wondered what Alex would think of the new me.

  “She is with Margaret and Jackson, near the Chrysler Building,” Daniel explained. “It was the backup place I had with Reaper in case something went wrong. He should know to meet us there.”

  “You had a backup meeting place?” I asked.

  “Yeah,” Daniel replied.

  “What if I had needed that information?” I asked.

  “I would have given it to you,” Daniel said.

  The logical part of my brain realized the truth of that statement. The old part of me wanted to argue, but my new brain was too rational. It was irritating to feel two opposite things at the exact same time and see the reasoning behind both. It was easier just to feel one. I ignored the impulse to argue with Daniel and allowed for the logic to take hold. I had questions that needed answering. I wanted to understand where we stood.

  “How long did the change take?” I asked.

  “A full day,” Daniel replied.

  “And you haven’t had contact with Reaper since?” I asked.

  “No,” Daniel replied.

  “What about the Seekers?” I asked. “The ones that tried to trap us…have you seen them?”

  “No,” Serenity said. “Everything has been quiet.”

  “Which worries me,” Daniel said.

  “Why?” I asked.

  “It’s a little too quiet,” Daniel said. “It makes me think Marcus is waiting for something else to happen…it makes me wonder why I can’t get in contact with Reaper, if the two things are connected. It also makes me wonder if Marcus’ Seekers aren’t planning something epic here in town still.”

  “I don’t get how they knew where we were going to be,” I said. “How did they know where to find us? We just appeared in New York…how do you follow a walker?”

  “They could have a Seer,” Serenity said. “Or a Watcher who can track people. Or a Nightstalker who can track people…a Nightstalker would make more sense.”

  “What about that woman who attacked us – the one with the scales. Maybe it was her,” I suggested.

  Daniel and Serenity exchanged an odd look. It was a look of awareness.

  “What?” I asked.

  “You could be right,” Daniel admitted.

  “Why does that warrant a look?” I asked.

  “Because her breed is rare and very, very dangerous,” Daniel said.

  “You said ‘breed’ like she’s not a Watcher,” I said.

  “She’s a Watcher who is born from a Nightstalker,” Serenity said.

  “I don’t understand,” I said.

  “A Watcher who is with child when she changes into a Nightstalker gives birth to her progeny and such a creature as that woman is born,” Serenity said. “She is part Nightstalker, part Watcher, and complete abomination.”

  “Oh, sort of like angels who mate with humans, then?” I said.

  There it was – my sarcasm. I welcomed it back happily. The old me was struggling to find room in the large brain I had so recently gained. I refused to let myself turn in to a cold machine without humor or emotion. I would hang on around the power of the change.

  “Good point,” Daniel replied.

  “The point is that she could have tracked you down. She is imbued with abilities beyond the normal Watcher,” Serenity said.

  “But she would have had to have known I would be in New York,” I said. “There’s no way she tracked me through the place in-between.”

  “That is true,” Serenity said.

  “Which means the vision of the bomb must have really been sent by Marcus and wasn’t real,” I concluded.

  There was no other explanation. He had sent the dream to me, hoping I would end up in New York. He had also sent his dragon-lady and companions to wait for me. The plan had almost worked. I wondered dryly when he would get tired of his plans ‘almost working.’

  Daniel shrugged. The expression on his face suggested he was prepared to make me feel better. The words were easy for him to find.

  “Marcus is good at deceiving people,” Daniel said. “He has made it a way of life.”

  “It will never happen again,” I vowed.

  As I said it, I felt an overwhelming pressure against my skull. It was as if hands were around my head and were squeezing with all their might, while an ice pick was shoved into my eyes. I swore, wondering if it was another side effect of the change, and felt myself drop down to one knee. As I dropped, Daniel put his hand on my neck, the question of what was wrong burning on his lips. He didn’t understand what was happening. Whatever this w
as, it was not part of the change. I felt a link through our touch and knew he saw what I saw next.

  It was the same scene from the dream Marcus had sent me, only it was changed. I wasn’t running toward Times Square, I was at Grand Central Station. In front of me were Alex and the others; they were impatiently waiting for something. A train? Me? I couldn’t tell. Daniel and Serenity were with me. They had the same expressions of terror that I had on my face. We knew what was coming – time was ticking down to a disaster. Time was out.

  In the next instant, I saw Alex and others consumed by a blast of fire. They were standing there one moment and gone the next. The panic of seeing them was as intense as the vision I had shared of them lying dead at the abandoned town in Idaho. It felt so real. It was real. I could sense the truth in my heart.

  The next thing I saw was the ship, abandoned and useless in the desert. It was empty and frightening in its abandoned feel. It was as if it had been abandoned for decades. Then, I saw a vision of me standing in front of a large horde of nameless Watchers, facing them down with the calm that only my new body could provide. I was wearing antique-looking armor and carrying the historian’s sword in my hand. Lightning flashed across the sky as a great earthquake rippled across the land separating me from the horde. A great divide opened up between the enemy and me.

  The vision ended.

  I was able to see my surroundings again. Daniel was kneeling in front of me, and Serenity was eyeing us curiously. Daniel’s eyes were bothered. He wasn’t sure what to think. Was Marcus taking advantage of me? Was he able to get in to my brain because the change had left me exposed? But that didn’t fit. There was no way Marcus could mess with me now – my brain was locked down. It wasn’t the weak thing it had been before. But our connection had always been strong…was it possible he could reach through the shield of my mind? The look in Daniel’s eyes suggested he didn’t think so, which meant the threat of the bomb was still real. Had I seen the future? Was it a talent presenting itself? I felt the scope of my mind threatening to consume my personality again – a sign that I was capable of far more than just seeing the future. I retreated from the power again and started to ask Daniel the question on my brain. Before I could, Daniel’s phone rang.

  He answered it, his eyes still on my face.

  “Alex?” he asked.

  “Yeah…” Alex replied. “How’s Clare?”

  “She’s…better,” Daniel replied.

  “Good,” Alex said. “Listen, we don’t think Reaper is going to show. Maybe we should meet up and have Clare take us back to the boat, if she’s feeling up to it.”

  Daniel’s eyebrows furrowed together in a question – it was a question he was afraid to ask but one that was entirely necessary.

  “Where are you now?” he asked.

  “Well, we were at the Chrysler Building, but Jackson got impatient, so we came to Grand Central. We’re about to get on a train headed your way.”

  The next second seemed to last forever. Daniel and I shared a look full of fear – she was exactly where the dream…vision…whatever, said she would be. How close to being blown up where they? I couldn’t take the chance. I couldn’t run the risk of it being real.

  I didn’t give him the time to tell her to run – I didn’t do anything beyond grab his hand and imagine the place in the vision. The pull in to the in-between was immediate and more fluid than I had ever felt it. It was a natural extension of who I was. The rushing dark set me down next to Alex – she was exactly where the vision said she would be. She was standing at a platform with Margaret and Jackson, waiting with other people for the train to arrive. Alex still had the phone in her hand.

  “Hello? Are you there?” Alex was saying in to the phone.

  Margaret and Jackson had already noticed us. They had flinched when we appeared, their muscles tensing on instinct. The cold part of my mind had almost as much to do with what I did next as the emotional part. I reached out, grabbed Alex, Jackson and Margaret, and willed us to move back in to the darkness. Before we disappeared in to the place in-between, I saw a train barreling toward us. Its lights were bright in the darkness. The next moment I heard a loud ‘BOOM!’ which rattled the earth, the sky and everything in between. A wall of flame followed the sound. It was headed directly for us.

  The world dissolved in to the blissful darkness. As it did, I felt the heat of the flames surround us. The fire consumed us in the dark.

  Chapter 15

  We landed back in the room of mannequins. My landing was less than smooth.

  The flame had followed us through the darkness. It tried to try wrap around us and complete its ultimate mission of destruction. We hit the ground hard, and the others rolled away from the danger instinctively. I was the only one who didn’t move. The fire did not scare me. The flames circled around my body. Though it should have killed me, it was nothing more than a warm light in the dark. The fire held no danger. In fact, it was something I could control. Instead of letting it hurt the others by continuing its path around the room, I held up my hands. The fire circled my body playfully, responding to the movement. I stood and went over to the window. I pushed the fire out through the window. It burned bright in the dark sky for a brief minute before dying out. I turned back to the others, to make sure they were safe.

  They were all staring at me. Their mouths were hanging open. I had obviously shocked them with my control over the fire. I ignored their expressions and eyed them for injuries. They were a little singed from the fire, but otherwise unhurt. I let out a sigh of relief.

  “I guess Clare has learned some new skills while she was away,” Jackson said dryly.

  “It wasn’t like I was on vacation,” I said. “It was the change.”

  Alex had a different issue on her mind – like understanding what she had just lived through.

  “What happened? Where’d the fire come from?” Alex asked.

  “Marcus,” I said.

  “The bomb was real then?” she asked.

  “Yes,” I replied.

  “All those poor people!” Alex said. “We have to go back and help them.”

  Her words reminded me of the others that had been on the platform. I realized I hadn’t given them a second thought. I had saved my friends, but had neglected the others. I wasn’t sorry I had saved them, but her words made me realize the fact that I hadn’t thought twice about helping them. She was right…we had to help them now. It was the least we could do.

  Eli and Serenity had stayed in the doorway during our landing. They were curious about the fire, but it didn’t take them long to catch up to the situation. Serenity’s eyes were bothered – almost as bothered as mine. Had she had the power to stop the explosion? Or was something else on her mind? Eli spoke up in response to Alex’s words.

  “I’ll go,” Eli said. “I’ll heal who I can.”

  “I’ll take you,” I said.

  “I’m coming, too,” Daniel said.

  “Me, too,” Alex said.

  “The more I take, the more we will stand out,” I said. “Besides, Eli is the only one who can heal others.”

  “What are we supposed to do, then?” Alex asked. “Twiddle our thumbs?”

  “Only if you want to,” I said.

  “Well, we could deal with that,” Jackson said, pointing out the window.

  He had moved to the window. I wasn’t sure what had drawn him there, but I knew he was rewarded with a different kind of view than the cityscape. We all moved to see what he saw. On the roof of the building across from us, there was a group of a hundred Watchers. I counted them in a glance.

  In front of the group was the dragon-girl. The mask was gone, and I saw that the scales extended far beyond what I had thought. They almost covered her entire face. Even her eyes looked more reptilian than human. Beside her was another Watcher – this one was wearing a cloak that covered the person from head to foot. It was a cloak with a familiar emblem of the red snake on the front; it was the same cloak the Seekers in New O
rleans and Alaska had worn. The figure reminded me of New Orleans – my necklace burned at the reminder. A Seeker in a cloak just like the one in front of me had stolen my necklace from me and had sold it to Sevier. Was this the same Seeker, or another one? It was impossible to tell. There were no distinguishing features beyond the cloak.

  I focused beyond the front of the group and saw that their small army consisted of more than just ‘normal’ Watchers. They had Watchers who looked as if they had died and come back. Two of them were the Seekers Daniel had killed on the street. They had zombie-Watchers as part of their fighting force. The sight of them was enough to make me shiver.

  “Do we fight?” Jackson asked eagerly.

  “We don’t,” I said.

  Jackson was disappointed. “You’re supposed to be lusting for murder as the new you. You’re not supposed to be reasonable…that doesn’t happen for a couple of decades.”

  “I’ve got Daniel in my head,” I replied.

  I touched my necklace subconsciously; it was still burning from anger at the sight of the hooded Seeker. I also had the necklace to remind me of what needed to be done. People needed help. Fighting a group of Seekers just because we could was not as smart as running away. We would fight when we could face them on better ground…when they didn’t outnumber us so completely.

  I held out my hands to the group. They took my hands without hesitation, though Jackson sighed audibly, and I allowed the dark to take us in to its fold once again. The woman’s reptilian eyes stayed with me as I pulled my friends away from the certain danger of a fight we could not win. The look in her eyes told me I would be seeing her again.