Rush (Roam Series, Book Four) (26 page)

“He can do that?” I asked.

“No,” Will loosened the collar of his shirt, and I reached for the air conditioner button. “It has become apparent that there is no way, but he never stops trying.”

“Did Eva give any indication that she’s hurt?” Violet finally asked, and Will shook his head again.

“No.”

The tense silence in the Jeep had me
securing the Glock at my side and checking the knife at my belt. I had to be twenty-one for a concealed carry license, so if we got pulled over I’d definitely be put in jail. I checked my speed.

“
How is your mother?” I asked Will.

“She is well. A general happiness has returned to
Icepond; I have incorporated many of Roam’s diplomatic ideas into my rule. Fairness, equality, and due process. Though many… terrible things happened to her there, she was by far a most impressive queen.”

“
She’s smart.” I agreed, deciding not to elaborate on how fucked-up she was since the castle. “We’ll check motels near the lighthouse, but he may have taken her over to the islands.”

“He may have moved. What if he just continues moving around? How will we find her?” Violet’s voice shook in a way I’d never heard. I reached for her hand.

“I think she will find
me
,” Will said softly, meeting my eyes in the rearview mirror. “I do not know how, but I sense that she can.”

By the time I reached Marblehead Lighthouse, we were all on edge. It was nearing midnight and the park was closed to visitors. “Now what?” Violet demanded. I knew she was hungry; we all needed to eat, but no one wanted to stop now that we’d come this far.

“Let’s check out the motels around here. We’ll grab something to eat on the way. Will, you said something about stone and wood?”

“Yes. On the shore; trees surrounding the building.
Rooms with outdoor access, and she sees the interior… a room with two beds.”

“
It has to be a motel.” My phone was buzzing, and I lifted it to my ear as I climbed into the Jeep again. “Hey West.”

“Anything?”

He must have had the exact time we’d reach the lighthouse programmed into his own phone. I sighed, glancing at Violet. “Nothing. Will says she sees a building- we’re going to check it out. We think it might be a motel.”

“If he sees you or Violet, he may try to take off.”

“I know. Where are you?”

“Cleveland. We’re driving straight there. Let me know when you find something.”

“Okay.” I disconnected as Violet grabbed my arm, gesturing out the window.

“Logan, look,” she
ducked down in the seat slightly, and I followed her gaze. A motel loomed along the shore, fitting Will’s description exactly; wood paneling, several rooms with outdoor access, and large, gray stones. A deck extended along both floors, allowing access to the several rooms. “Will?”

“I did not see the image, but it is as Asher described. Logan, pull along the road,” he suggested. I killed the headlights and parked under a massive oak tree. “We must check with the owner of the inn.”

“The lobby,” I turned to Violet and Will. “Listen, stay here. Watch to make sure he doesn’t try to take off, if he’s in there. I’m going to talk to the front desk- it looks like they’re still open.”

“Please be careful,” Violet begged. I kissed her softly, nodding.

I scanned the parking lot on the way to the lobby, finding all Ohio license plates and no vehicles matching the black Nissan description. The lobby was empty, the front desk unattended. I leaned over the counter, searching the back room.
Come the fuck on.
The screensaver on the computer monitor bobbed with a geometric design, and I bumped the mouse next to the keyboard.

Some software filled the screen, and I scanned for anything related to guests.

“Can I help you?”

A
tanned man, mid-forties, slouched to my left. “Hi, I’m looking for a guest who may be here. Cole Mathison. He has a red-haired little girl with him.”

I stared him down, and when recognition passed over his scruffy face, I almost darted out the door for the rooms.
Slow down, get more information.

“Wrong name, but he’s here. You sure that’s his name?”

“No,” I pulled out my phone, scrolling to my photos. Eva’s picture filled the screen before I turned back to the man. “Is this the girl?”

“That’s her. Do I need to be calling the police?” He asked nervously, already weighing his cell phone in his hands.

“No, no. Not yet. What room are they in?”

“I don’t think I should be telling you-…,”

I struck before he could finish his sentence, a fistful of his greasy hair in my hands as I slammed his face to the countertop. The mouse pad did little to cushion the blow, and he groaned. “What
room
are they
in
?” I hissed.

“Nine. Second floor.” He managed.
Cool down… cool down…

I lifted him back to a standing position before knocking him out with one blow.

The gun in hand, I crossed to the back of the motel, knowing that Violet and Will could see me from the car. Taking two stair steps at once, I held my hand up flat, indicating they stay where they were.

Three… five… nine.
The window next to the door was darkened.

If Eva is asleep, I’ll scare her if I shoot the lock.

After endless seconds of contemplation, I finally decided to just knock. I tried five non-threatening raps, waiting.

The sound of a chambering round beneath me sent me flattening against the door just in time; the gunshot from below the deck splintered the wood where my feet stood only seconds earlier.

“
Fuck
,” I watched the shadowed figure move beneath me, nearly missing five stairs as I ran after him.
He’s heading toward the water.

“
Rush!
” His voice halted my finger at the trigger, and I flattened behind the giant trunk of a tree. An overturned canoe lay to my right, and I finally noticed a car- the Nissan- parked in a small scenic overlook by the shore. “You’re not going to kill her!”

“You’re fucking right I’m not going to kill her,” I called, steadying my hands. “I’m going to put a bullet in
your
fucking immortal head.”

“
I won’t let you do this again,” he called, and I sensed this time that he was more to my left, hidden in a group of three trees hanging over the sand. “You’re the Alter.”

“
I know what I am. I know what I’ve done,” I added. The moonlight was bright enough to light the night around us.
Keep him talking.
“But the nightmares can’t change me this time.”

“What’s so special this time?”

“I love her. I love Roam, and her children, and I’d never hurt them.”

“
Bullshit
.”

“If you won’t give her to me, then give her to her sister,” I suggested, thinking as quickly as I could. “Violet won’t hurt her.”

“Do you know what will happen if she dies?” Cole’s voice carried through the darkness, the southern accent catching me off guard. “This entire world burns. Melting faces. Like a fucking nuclear bomb. Only mortals, they get to just
die
. For immortals… we
feel
. We live through it.
All of it.
”

This world burns?
I knew about the sun in Icepond, burning their world. But Earth?
If Eva dies here, our world burns?

I could hear his panting breath
. Goddamnit.
I knew that fear meant he was no longer in control. “You’re wrong. Roam and I were kept prisoner in the other world, Mathison. The world burns slowly. And we are a sophisticated planet- we would adapt, just like the other world is adapting right now. You don’t know all of the facts.”

“
I know I listened to my own father talk for years about his purpose. About the prophecy, about his immortal soul, and about a fucking king who wanted vengeance. You called yourself the ‘
Prophet
of Vengeance.’”

What the…?
“I’m sorry you had a rough childhood. And it sounds like I was a fucking nut. Now listen to me,” I lifted the Glock, ready to fire. “Let Eva go. And I’ll come to you, and we’ll settle this, one way or another.”

“You-…,”

Fireworks exploded over the lake at that moment, and Eva’s scream forced me from behind the tree. In the multiple red and white lights, I saw her wrench away from Mathison, running toward me.

When he aimed his gun at her, a cracking sound burst in my ears, and I stopped thinking.

Raising the Glock, I took one shot at his head through the dying lights of the fireworks, targeting right between his eyes.

He went down instantly.

Eva continued to run, and I glanced to my side, watching Will catch her and secure her into his arms. “Ah, Eva…
hush now… all is well, little one.
All is well.
Logan
,” he shifted his eyes toward Cole’s body, and I nodded, moving in.

“
Will,
” Eva sobbed, gripping him with arms and legs and every ounce of strength in her little body. He tucked her face into his neck, continuing to whisper soft words to her.

Mathison
lay on his back, and I stared down at his bloodied face, knowing he was already healing.

Let him heal;
lock him up.
Morals reared their ugly head, and I aimed the gun, knowing I could decapitate him easily with three more shots.

He spent all of these years trying to protect the same people you love.

Misinformed.

“
Fuck
,” I aimed at his neck, stopping at Violet’s cry.

“
Logan, no,
” she managed shakily, reaching one tentative arm in my direction. “No. Don’t do it,
please don’t...,
”

The numbness of killing,
coupled with the certainty of power, became my only truth. Violet’s protesting cries grew canned and far away as I aimed the gun at Mathison’s neck, firing three rapid shots. Her screams mingled with new fireworks; I gripped a handful of his bloodied hair and retrieved my knife from my side.

Separate his head from his body. Throw him in the lake.

Bloodied hands were slippery; I patted them on the mossy ground, coating them with dusty soil. The mangled cords of his neck would require sawing.

Remove his heart and other organs;
divide them.

“Logan…,”

I felt the hand on my shoulder, and within seconds I had my assailant pinned to the grass, my knife to her neck.

Her terrified eyes reflected the moonlight above as a stifled sob escaped. Violet’s chest rose and fell beneath my hand, her strangled voice thick with tears. “No…
Logan, it’s me, don’t…,
”

My mind poured through the castle walls, through boot camp, through exploding grenades and Roam’s tortured screams.

I lifted my face to the sky at the sudden, piercing sound of a radio frequency from the high tower speakers on the street poles. After several samples of mixed music that I didn’t recognize, the volume around me rose as
Calendar Girl
came in mid-verse, loud enough to be heard across the lake to the islands.

Freezing with the knife in my hand, I turned toward Will. Eva gripped him, staring at me with wide, unblinking eyes that glowed like hot amber coals.

“Logan?” Violet’s shaking, tearful voice beneath me; I turned back down to her in confusion, expecting to see anyone but her below me as I crouched next the mangled body, covered in blood.

The man from the front desk approached, looking dazed, gripping a phone. Eva turned to him with
her steady gaze; the tinkling notes from
Swan Lake
that played in the music box that I had gotten her for Christmas mingled with the remnants of
Calendar Girl
.

The man’s fist fell open, the phone slipping to the ground.
He fell to his knees before curling up into a ball on the ground, asleep.

“
Violet,” Will motioned to her, and Violet slowly crawled on her back away from me. Rising to her feet, she turned and ran the last few yards to her sister before gathering to her chest. The music that filled the night slowly dwindled away, leaving only the sounds of Lake Erie lapping against the shore.

Will approached me slowly. “
Justice will be served, Logan. In a few hours, he will heal. Until then,” Will’s voice, soothing, directive, gave me back a thread of focus. “We wait for her parents. That is enough; there is no more for you to do here,” he coaxed, holding his hand out expectantly.

I
handed over the knife before releasing the magazine from the Glock, allowing Will to take the gun. Violet carried Eva to the car, and Will’s balanced tone continued at my side.