04 Last (36 page)

“It’s easy for you to say that now,” Alex said. “Hindsight is 50-50. My emotions aren’t your plaything. You made your choice.”

“I never intended for them to be,” I heard Eli say in his quiet voice. “I was wrong to leave.”

“Yes, you were,” Alex said.

“I left because I was afraid. I was afraid to hurt you and afraid to face the truth. It’s been so long since I’ve had anyone in my life that could…” He hesitated. “Is it too late?”

Alex didn’t reply. The silence was oppressive.

“You don’t have to answer now,” Eli said. “Just know that I’m sorry, and I never meant to hurt you.”

I heard footsteps cross a hard surface, and then the door to the outside was thrown back. Daniel and I stared at Eli. His strange eyes were full of sadness and doubt, but, in the depths, I also saw hope. He stifled his hope as he looked at us; he thought we had not heard his conversation. He didn’t speak; he merely passed us and went his solitary way down the hall. Daniel and I shared a questioning look. His eyes asked me if I wanted to talk to Alex in private. I nodded a ‘yes,’ and Daniel followed Eli’s path down the hall.

The second I stepped outside, I was met by a harsh wind. It tore in to my flesh with unrelenting cold and threatened to knock me overboard. Alex was standing at the railing, on the same side of the ship as the door. She was oblivious to the wind, though it whipped her hair around her face with angry vengeance. She didn’t seem to notice me as I stepped out and joined her at the rail, but I knew she was very aware of my presence. We stood in silence for a long minute. In that minute, I realized she was crying. I put my arm around her shoulders and waited for her to speak first.

“This is so stupid,” she said.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“Why couldn’t he have kept his mouth shut?” she asked.

I was wondering the same thing. I had warned him about pulling Alex in to an emotional crisis, but he had obviously not heard me. Or was it that the emotions were too strong for him to ignore? It was difficult to tell with him; he was the king of keeping his emotions personal.

“I don’t know,” I said. “What are you going to do?”

Alex’s blue eyes shone with the moisture of her tears as she turned to look at me. The question had caught her off guard. She looked startled I had thought to ask such a thing.

“What am I going to do?” she asked.

“Yeah,” I agreed.

“What do you mean?” she asked.

The question was simple in my mind.

“Eli or Reaper?” I asked.

She turned her face back to the ocean. She thought about my question for a moment. She wasn’t as prepared to answer as I had thought – the question was not as simple for her. She was still digesting her emotions on the subject. I thought I knew which one of them was best for her, but I couldn’t make her decision for her. It was up to her to choose. When she spoke, her words were concise, carefully chosen.

“I am going to focus on what is front of me. Marcus is a problem. We need to face him before we can deal with anything else. What did you find out from Sevier?”

I sighed. She wasn’t ready. I didn’t want to push her.

“We found out that Sevier is a weasel, and that Marcus definitely is planning something big,” I said.

“What?” she asked.

I put my hand on hers and filled in on the details through our mental connection. Her eyes widened when she realized the implications of what I was saying.

“We have to stop him,” Alex said.

“I don’t think we were planning on going tanning instead,” I said.

“But when will this happen?” she asked. “Soon…tomorrow…today?”

“We don’t know,” I said. “It’s on our to-do list to find out, though.”

“We should go see what they intend to do about it,” she said.

By ‘they’ she meant Reaper and Daniel.

“Yeah…” I agreed.

Alex started to pass me to go inside, but I grabbed hold of her arm. She turned at the feel of my hand on her arm. Her eyes were incredibly sad as she looked at me; it was sadness she couldn’t hide anymore.

“You’re not alone,” I said. “I’m here.”

Alex’s smile was small but pleased. She appreciated my words, but getting rid of the sadness was not so easy.

“I’ll keep that in mind,” she said.

She hooked her arm around mine and pulled me away from the railing and back to the door.

Reaper was not in the galley. Instead, he was in his room with Daniel. Reaper had his arms crossed as he sat on his bunk. He looked thoughtful. He was contemplating taking on the weight of the world or something equally as profound. Daniel was pacing in front of him.

I knocked twice on the edge of the doorframe and Reaper gestured me in. Alex hovered behind me, unwilling to cross the threshold with the raw emotions still surging through her. It was a threshold that separated her from another emotional pull – Reaper’s.

“Well?” I asked.

“Your hero-boyfriend was just deciding what to do,” Reaper said.

“We
were discussing what to do,” Daniel corrected.

“Sure, if you want to put it that way,” Reaper said with a smile.

“What did Daniel decide?” I asked.

“We’re going to go to the city and scour it for signs of a bomb,” Reaper said.

“That’s it?” I asked. “Search until something turns up?”

“It’s better than sitting here and doing nothing,” Reaper pointed out.

Daniel was only listening to our conversation on the edges – he was more focused on what we were about to do.

“We have to assume that he will act soon. He wouldn’t do all this preparation for nothing. Marcus would pick an area that would cause the most panic,” Daniel said. “He’s all about show…the most panic at the smallest cost.”

A dream I had weeks ago rose in front of my eyes. It was me running toward Times Square just as a bomb explodes. I had the answer they were searching for.

“Times Square,” I said without thinking.

“That’s a little obvious, don’t you think?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah,” I agreed. “But isn’t that the point? Times Square is iconic. People have an image of it in their heads, especially tourists. A lot of people think of Times Square when they think of New York.”

“But does Marcus want to cause panic, or does he just want to kill everyone?” Alex asked.

“It’s hard to tell,” Daniel said. “A bomb has the feeling of grandiose, though. You do it to make a point…you do it to accomplish something else…”

“We’ll check there first,” Reaper said. “If we don’t find anything…well, there’s always the rest of the city.”

“Yeah…” I agreed.

“Preacher and King just left to scout the area on the map you found,” Reaper said. “But the others are available. We’ll see what we can do.”

“I want to come,” Alex said.

“Me, too,” I said.

“Clare…” Daniel started to say.

I knew where he was going. He wanted to lock me away where my screams would not disturb the general public, but I felt as if I was the only person who would know what to look for. I would sense if the dream was real or not. I held up my hand to stop him.

“I’m going,” I said. “We have time.”

“Not that much,” Daniel said.

“Are we going to fight about this?” I asked.

“Yes,” Daniel replied.

“I’ll win,” I said.

“I’m incredibly charming,” Daniel pointed out. “And when that fails, I’m incredibly ruthless.”

“Did you just threaten me?” I asked.

“Guys, this is way cute, but we don’t have time,” Alex said. “A bomb in a city, remember?”

“Clare goes, but if we get close to your time to change then you leave. We stay in pairs. All information goes through me,” Reaper said, taking control of the situation. “You find something, you call.”

“I wish to come as well,” Serenity said, stepping around Alex to join us. She had been eavesdropping on our conversation.

Reaper looked at her with a question in his eyes. He wasn’t sure what to make of her continued presence. The agreement with Odette had ended the moment Odette had fled and the council had been killed. There was no reason for her to stick around. Or was there? Was she still playing Odette’s game?

“I wish to play my part in the story unfolding,” Serenity said, noticing the expression on his face. “This is the last place left I have to do that…with Odette gone, I have nowhere else to be.”

Reaper looked at Daniel, who, in turn, nodded.

“Fine,” Reaper said. “I’m going to go collect the others.”

“Alright,” Daniel agreed.

Serenity turned and left ahead of Reaper, while Daniel and Alex held their hands out to me. I took their hands and imagined the one place in New York I knew was safe from prying eyes. We stepped in to the moving dark and beyond.

Daniel’s penthouse above the bank he owned was as empty as we had left it. A thin haze of abandonment surrounded the open room.

“We have eleven hours before the change. I want to be gone before then,” Daniel said. “So, let’s start looking.”

“Lead the way,” I said.

We took the elevator down to the main level. He caught strange looks from the employees in the bank; looks from those not accustomed to seeing their boss, particularly with two girls behind him. Daniel ignored the looks, waved familiarly at the doorman, who didn’t seem to care who Daniel was, only that he needed a door opened, and walked out in to the New York autumn. Snow was on the streets – an early season storm had ravaged the city. The streets were clear, but the sidewalks held snow which had turned brown with the traffic.

Alex inhaled sharply then put a hand to her nose as she followed after us.

“How is it that you two smile like idiots every time we’re here, but all I can think is ‘urine smell’?” she asked.

“You’ve never lived here the way a person should,” I replied.

“I hear your words, and know that you mean them, but all that I register is ‘urine smell,’” Alex said.

“You’re an animal,” I said. “No class.”

“Excuse me?” Alex asked.

She arched an eyebrow dangerously. She had taken my words to mean her change in to Nightstalker, instead of the teasing way I had meant it.

“You know what I mean…” I said.

Daniel’s phone rang as we walked. He answered on the first ring. His face was neutral – the way it always got when he was in the middle of a mission. When he picked up, I heard the sound of Reaper’s voice. They talked for a brief moment then hung up.

“Reaper and the rest are in place,” Daniel informed us. “They’re starting their search. He said to remember to call him if we find anything.”

Alex and I nodded in understanding and did our best to match Daniel’s purposeful stride. He was unyielding and full of determination. I sensed him thinking about his past with Marcus, the time they had spent as friends in the very city we were searching for a bomb. I sensed him wondering how he could have missed Marcus’ anger and the darkness around his heart. There was stubbornness in Daniel’s mind as well; a stubborn promise not to let Marcus win. Daniel would stop the bomb, single-handedly if he had to.

Times Square was bustling with the normal workday foot-traffic and the tourists who were brave enough to endure the chilly winds. Even though it was not the busiest I had ever seen the area, it was busy enough. I knew Marcus was not stupid enough to wait until after hours, if he was planning something. He would act when the street was busiest. Our time was ticking down. And if not today, then did we dare rest and let him set it off tomorrow?

Daniel stopped on the intersection of W40
^th
and 7
^th
. He looked around at the theaters and buildings we had to search, just along that intersection alone. We couldn’t see Reaper or any of the others, but I knew they were in the area, probably having similar moments of doubt.

“This is a lot of ground to cover,” Daniel said with a frown.

“Yeah, no kidding,” Alex said. “Seems like this is getting more impossible by the moment.”

“What are you talking about?” I asked. “We have the word of a creep that a bomb will go off sometime in the foreseeable future, somewhere in New York. What makes you think this is impossible?”

Alex’s grin was lopsided. Her grin faded and she bit her lip thoughtfully. My words had given her an idea.

“Daniel…” she said. “Why don’t you try…you know, seeing the foreseeable future? Maybe there’s something there.”

“I tried,” Daniel admitted.

“Try harder,” I said.

He frowned at me.

“Don’t think about what will happen if you fail,” I said “Just let your mind do what it does naturally.”

“Now you sound like the historian,” Daniel muttered.

“Have you been eavesdropping in on our conversations?” I asked.

Daniel shrugged and closed his eyes to focus. In any other city, I would have worried about standing out, about people staring at the strange man standing on the sidewalk with his eyes closed, while two others stared at him, but we were in New York. If people did notice, they made certain not to look any further than what the corner of their eye could tell them. It was something I enjoyed about the city: the anonymity.