Forbidden Days (The Firsts) (37 page)

Settled in Eillia’s jet, Park hugged Bas and gave him a long kiss.  “You be very careful.  I can’t lose you.”  Her eyes bounced between the two men in front of her.  “Either of you.”  Koen moved forward and hugged his daughter.

“We’ll find her if it’s possible.  I’ve let my people know who you are.  They’ll treat you accordingly.   I can’t find my fucking phone, so I used the pilots.  His name is Philippe, and he will get you all safely to my home.  You’ll be flying during daylight, but you’ll be okay.  This plane is light-tight.  We’ll see you soon.”

They both backed out of the plane as the door was pulled shut and sealed.   The engines roared and the plane taxied down the runway, faster, faster, and lifted into the dark sky.  Bas and Koen watched until it was clear and airborne.  With a quickly drawn breath, Bas looked up at Koen.

“Where do we start?”

Burne played with a little game handset she found tucked into a seatback.  It was inane and stupid, and she found she couldn’t do it at all.  In light of the night’s events, it was a poor distraction at best.

“I shouldn’t have let them do it.”

Burne looked up at Park who spoke for the first time after take-off twenty minutes ago.

“Sweetie, you couldn’t control those four.  It was a good plan.  They were our most powerful and the most likely to be able to stop them.  Koen was right.  It just…didn’t work out the way it should have.”

“Burne, I’m really powerful now, too.  I could have helped.  I might have been able to protect them.”

“You would never have risked it.  Not in your condition.”

Park sighed.  “You’re right.  I just…oh, god I wish I could have stopped this night.”

“This could have been so much worse.  I’m not understating Hamids, or Eugenes death or Eillia’s abduction, but we could all have been killed.  This asshole has a serious bend for us.  I hope to fuck they get him.”

Zach leaned over the back of Burne’s seat.  “I saw Koen’s eyes as he got off the plane.  They glowed…like bright gold.  He’ll get him.”  He dropped back and closed his eyes like everyone else on the flight.  Burne hugged Park and rolled over on her side as well.

“Get some sleep, sweetie, if you can.  I’m going to give it a shot.  My mind
and
body are spent.”

Park couldn’t.  Yes, the plan had seemed sound.  The four most powerful would go out to eliminate any remaining threat.  Bas insisted the other vampires remain to protect those in the safe room.  In spite of complaints, he’d asked them to honor his decision.  They had.  But no one knew how many forces waited above.  And now, so many had died.

She got up and wandered down the aisle, taking note of all that survived.  Jake took up the rear seat, the McCairn’s close by.  The remaining vampires in Bas’s security teams were behind them.  Dez had isolated herself in the middle of the plane, her eyes closed and breathing deeply.  Park put her hand over her head as she passed by.  Dez moaned softly but didn’t respond any more than that.  Cherise sat nearer to the back, alone as well.  Her eyes were closed, too, her head turned toward the window, but Park could tell she’d been crying…still was.  She slid in beside her.

“I can’t believe we’ll never see him again.”

Cherise opened her eyes but didn’t move.

“He was the kindest person I’ve ever met,” Park followed up.

Slowly, Cherise turned her head toward Park.

“
On ne voit bien qu’avec le coeur
.”    Cherise sighed.  “It means we see best when we look with our heart.  No one had a greater heart than Eugene.”

“I know.  He is irreplaceable.”  They sat there in silence.  There were no words great enough for the loss of their friend.  Park changed the subject.

“Have you been to Koen’s place?”

“No, never.  I attended your mother, Park.  But in America where he met her.”   With another deep sigh, she turned completely toward Park.  “I’m done with this.  When we get there, I’m leaving the vampires.  I need some peace.  I need…a normal life.”

Park understood.  Cherise’s whole life had been anything but normal.  She was born to it.  Cherise herself wasn’t “normal.”  Park had never had a good, normal day in all her childhood, either.   But this, until tonight, had been her best of times.  She could understand how a lifetime of insanity would lead you to want nothing more complicated in your life than opening a stubborn jar.  She smiled at Cherise, who knew she understood, and then moved back toward her seat.

With no warning, there was an explosive bang, a loud whoosh, then the plane pitched sideways, throwing everyone up against their seat, holding on tightly to keep from flying across the cabin.  Park was thrown, however, since she was still walking up the aisle at the moment.  Her head stopped her by ramming into the divider panel between two sections.

Vaz had been in the forward section of the plane and tried to get to her, but the plane rolled sideways again, and everyone else did too.

Sharp dings reverberated as the PA system came on.  The pilot’s French accent was thick.

“We have lost our right engine.  Everyone, buckle in.  We’re going to have to attempt a landing.”

Park grabbed a railing and pulled herself up.  She worked her way toward the cockpit, holding onto things physically and psychically.  Vaz gave her support as they reached the door to the pilot’s cabin, which opened because she willed it to.  As she pulled herself through, she asked the pilot.

“Philippe.  What would I have to do to keep us flying?”

He looked at her oddly, working the controls.

“What?”

“I mean, if I could do something to the engine to make it work again, we could stay airborne.”

He shook his head.  “There isn’t anything you can do.  It blew.  I don’t know why, sabotage, I think, but it’s gone.” 

“I think I can make it work again.  Just…”

Park stared at the engine that had gone dead.  Like Eillia had taught  her, she cleared her mind and focused on her desire.  Start the engine, start the engine, start the engine.   She felt her mind move from her body and travel to the damaged engine.  She moved around it and seemed to instinctively know that the explosion had damaged a certain part that she was able to repair with her mind.   Telekinesis, Eillia had said, but she knew it was more than that.  Somehow she knew intuitively what the engine needed and was able to implement the repair.  Her head began to ache, but she stayed on task.  Moments passed before she felt herself pull away and went back into herself. Almost as if something had, in actuality, sucked her back.  Vaz was holding her, keeping her from falling over.  She pressed her head with both hands.  Tried to speak but couldn’t.  The pilot twisted back around and watched her struggle to open her eyes and speak.

“Is…it…”  She moaned.  “Um….is it…working?”

“It is,
mademoiselle
!  It works! 
Merci!  Merci!
  Are you okay?”

“Fine.  Fine.  I’ll be fine.  Well, get us home, Philippe.”

“
Oui, oui, certainement.”

She turned and Vaz helped her back through the plane and to her seat next to Burne.  Vaz gave everyone a look of relief. 

“You won’t believe me if I tell you, but we’re okay.”

Burne settled Park back in her seat.

“Honey, are you alright?”

“Headache.  Bad one.  Used my…skills.  To fix the engine.”

She opened her eyes.  Burne moved closer.

“Sweetie, your eyes…they’re glowing.”

Zach leaned in.  “Like Koens’s.   Gold.  Brilliant.  It seems to happen when you exert your supernatural abilities.”

Park nodded…hurt too much to speak.  She whispered to Burne.  “Lie down.”  Burne led her to the back of the plane, and laid a pair of seats back.  “Here.  I’ll get you a blanket.”

Keeping her eyes closed, Park realized that Koen was touching her mind.  Vaguely aware he was asking if everything was okay, she sent back an affirmative, and then rolled over on her side and let exhaustion like she’d never known take her.

Daniel sat there way past any reasonable amount of time, but eventually, he set the body off him.  And picked up the shovel.   The intense physical labor of digging a deep hole was exactly what he needed right now.  Mindless grunt work, try to empty his head and heart of all the bad decisions he’d made over his lifetime.  The money from this job didn’t even matter anymore…he had more than enough to live well.  This would be his last act of his old life.   And the first of his new one.  Her grave would be unmarked, but it would also be undisturbed.  And although he didn’t know who else would mourn her, he would never forget her.   That face that seemed to touch his withered soul…was burned in his mind for the rest of his days.   A reminder…he would never really be able to move beyond his past…and he could never really atone for what he’d done.  He dug deep and hard into the rich, hard soil.  It wasn’t a bright future for him.  That was okay.  He didn’t deserve one.

When the hole was deep enough, he pulled off his flak jacket and wrapped it around her face, then laid her with great care into her final resting place.  God, she fucking deserved better.  But there wasn’t time.   He did not want to risk the client finding out he took her, and then finding her to finish his gruesome plans.  So he covered her quickly and then placed leaves and pine needles over the spot.  He cleaned the area thoroughly so no one would realize it had been disturbed.  Then he left quickly and did not look back.

Koen and Bas had searched everywhere they could.   There was no sign or sense of Eillia.  Koen had to accept…she was probably as dead as Hamid.  His grief was deep…and if this had happened two days ago before he’d found his daughter, he would have wished to join her.   He might have arranged for it.  His huge hand landed on Bas’s shoulder.

“It’s been long enough.  If she’d lived, I would have sensed her.  She’s gone.  I can’t believe the fucking rogue pulled it off.  I’m sorry, vampire, for all your losses, too.  I will stay with you until he is dead.”

“I appreciate that.  He’s apparently more motivated and more clever than I allowed.  He
has
to be found.”

“He will be.  He killed vampires,
and
a first blood.  That cannot and will not go unavenged.  No act is too great, no distance too far to go to kill him.  I cannot track him as I would Eillia.  Your hybrid vampire blood is too weak for me to sense.  There’ll be another way.  We start with his babes.”

“I’m with you there.”

During the search, they’d found the mercenaries vehicles, so they took one of the dark windowed SUV’s and headed into town.  It was nearing dawn, so Koen compelled the manager of a roadside hotel to give them the key to their storage basement, and they went underground to sleep off the daylight.  Tonight the search would continue.

Daniel couldn’t reach any of his team.  He’d been waiting at camp a good forty minutes after sunrise.   No one answered their cells, no one showed up.  What the hell?   Eventually he got back in his car and started to head back to the target site when a lone black truck came back up the barely cleared lane.   He got out and waited, and when the man got out of the truck, he recognized him as one of the recent hires.

“Hey, Gianni, isn’t it?” he said to the man.

The man scowled.  “Yeah, surprised you remember.”

“Where is everyone?  We were to rendezvous back here after daylight.”

“Yeah, I’m it.”

“I don’t understand,” Daniel said, his voice questioning.

“I’m it.  All that’s left.  Someone came out of the house and slaughtered your men.  Lucky you left early.”

With his hand on his hip, near his nine mil, Daniel stepped back a little at the implied insult.

“Soldier, you work for me.  Give me details on what happened.”

“I don’t work for you.  You abandoned your post.  I work for the client.  Who I’ve advised about the situation.”

“Have you?   And what have you advised him?”

“That you deferred his orders for your own.  That you didn’t have the sack to do what needed to be done.  You won’t be paid for this disaster.”

“I need those details.  You’re serious when you say everyone’s dead?”

“Oh, yeah.  It’s a fucking slaughter.  No one survived.”

Daniel felt sick.  “You did.”

“Yeah?  So did you.  I left because the client wanted me to.  He says he may have some other work for me.  He says I get part of your fee.”

“I don’t give a fuck about the money.  I
do
give a fuck if your betrayal got those guys killed.”

“Client says that once you decided not to behead them, those guys didn’t have a chance.  This is your fault.  Sir.”  That last word was spit out with venom.

And a few seconds later, as Daniel expected, the guy pulled his handgun and tried to take Daniel out.   He didn’t have a chance, either.   Daniel plugged him, watching him drop almost slow motion onto the rough ground.

He leaned over as the merc lay dying and said, “This has to end.  It has to end here.”   And he turned away, leaving him in the dust of the road and slowly got back into his vehicle.  

As he reached the paved road that disappeared into the trees in both directions, he figured he wouldn’t live to see Bali.  Karma. Fate. Whatever you called it.  Sometimes justice found you, no matter where you ran.  After returning to the site, and seeing the twisted ravaged remains of those he commanded, several he called friends, he knew this was as it was destined to be.  He said his peace, as close to prayers as a man like him had any right to speak, then got back in the car.  After sitting there for fifteen minutes staring out, he started it and turned right to go north, he realized what he was now running from was the consequences of his choices, his responsibility in so many deaths, and the image of a woman he would never know.

144

Chapter twenty five

Eillia’s jet landed without incident, much to the shock and joy of the pilot and his copilot.  Philippe had been a blood-bond of Eillia’s for a decade and he knew she was very powerful, but he had no idea one of her kind could do what the gorgeous redhead had done to save all their lives last night.  He taxied the plane into their private hangar and shut down the engines.