Sacrifice (36 page)

Raphael and Emma
? “Wait!”

Aiden stopped and glanced over his shoulder with a curious expression.

“The last time she met with Raphael, she barely got away and it nearly killed her. She’s stronger now, but I’m not sure she’s strong enough.”

Aiden stared with a blank expression. “Not to worry. Raphael has more to fear at this moment than Emma. He wants to use her so it’s in his best interest to keep her alive, while she has no use or interest in him. See? No real concern.”

Will expected Aiden to leave, but he studied Will for several seconds. “It’s very curious how much you really care about her. I took away all your memories of her yet you’re still with her. It’s as if you really do love her. But that’s impossible.”

“Is it?”

“It would seem that it’s not.” Aiden walked out while three guards entered.

Two grabbed Will’s arms and pulled him off the bed. “Time to go.”

***

Emma ran out onto the sidewalk and across the street, ducking around the corner of a building. A crack split the street, creeping toward her as the ground shook in a continuous roll.

“I want that book, Emmanuella!” Raphael shouted over the screams of the pedestrians running for cover. There was nowhere for them to run. People poured out of the buildings, onto the street and into danger.

Emma plastered her back against the brick building. “Raphael, enough of this!” she called out.

“This is your last warning, Emma. After this, I’m going to start making promises. Promises you won’t want me to keep.”

An elderly man emerged from a doorway beside her, confused and disoriented. A cut above his eyes dripped blood down his face, and he gripped his awkwardly bent left arm. He staggered toward Raphael’s direction.

Emma tugged his good arm and pulled him back. She spun him around to face the opposite way. “Go that way. Run!”

People swarmed past her as she stepped onto the corner. “Raphael, stop this! Innocent people are getting hurt!”

Raphael held his hands out from his sides. “Whose fault is that, Emma? Just hand over the book and be done with it.”

She clutched the strap that she’d slung over her shoulder. She’d love nothing more than to hand it over, but she also knew that if he was willing to go to this much trouble and risk this much exposure, there had to be a reason.

Giving Raphael the book would be a disaster.

But would it be any worse than the disaster unfolding before her now?

“What do you expect to find, Raphael? What do you think is in here?”

He took several steps toward her. “I already told you, Emma. I hope to see if there’s anything about the change of rules. You have an unfair advantage if you have the information. Now be a good girl and share.”

Her instinct screamed no.

Raphael waited for several seconds before he pointed across the street. “Okay, time to start paying, Emma. I’m giving you three seconds to hand over the book before I destroy the building on that corner.”

She turned her gaze to the six-story office structure. People spilled out the doors. How many were left inside? Surely, he wouldn’t really do this. Yet she had no doubt that he would.

Uncertainty mingled with her panic. Hundreds of lives depended on her decision. But if she gave him the book, it might not just be hundreds. It might be thousands. Or millions. She gulped deep breaths, her mind nearly paralyzed with indecision.

Maybe it wasn’t an either/or situation. She could try to stop him.

“One.”

The screams of the people around her filled her ears as she pulled energy from the building next to her.

“Two.”

It would take a lot to stop him. She let it build until it was nearly intolerable.

“Thr—”

She released it, pushing the mass toward Raphael. His eyes widened in disbelief as he threw his body out of the way a second before it would have hit him. The energy hit a car parked parallel on the street, exploding it in a fiery ball. The car behind it blew up, and each car behind blew up in rapid succession. Emma suspected it had more to do with the intensity of the force she used than pure combustion.

Raphael scrambled to his feet, a murderous gleam in his eye, and raised his hand. The building he’d threatened shook violently and collapsed, filling the street with dust and horrified screams.

Emma hid around the corner holding a hand over her mouth to smother her scream, trying not to think about how many people had just died. Choking on concrete dust, she swallowed the bile that rose in her throat. She had to get away from here. If she could lead Raphael away from all of these people, they’d be safe.

Scanning the horizon, she looked for the least populated place to run, devastated to see that there was none. It was all buildings and people for miles.

She had to get to her car.

Emma took off running, the plume of dust hiding Raphael, but she felt him behind her. His energy and his anger. The ground shook and she looked over her shoulder as he emerged from the white cloud. He raised his hand and a crack in the asphalt shot toward her, sucking cars abandoned on the road down into the crevice.

Struggling to maintain her balance, Emma pushed a ball of energy toward him, knowing it wasn’t enough to do him serious injury but would hopefully slow him down. It landed at his feet, throwing him off balance, granting her enough time to gain some distance.

The parking lot was two blocks away.

“I’ll destroy this city, building by building, block by block, until you give me the book,” he called after her. He stood between two cars, one with the driver’s door standing wide open. The back tire of the other hung over the edge of the crevice.

Absorbing electricity from the sources around her, she focused on igniting the gas tanks of the two cars. The explosions rocked the ground, sending plumes of dark smoke into the air and engulfing Raphael. She held her breath in hope that she might have defeated him.

Until he walked out of the haze toward her.

He raised his hands toward the buildings on her left and the ground pitched and bucked, the buildings collapsing like brittle gingerbread houses. An explosion quickly followed.

Emma lost her balance on the quaking ground and fell to her knees as the structures crumbled. She scrambled to her feet and took off running toward her car until another building collapsed beside her, blocking her path.

She spun around to face him. “Raphael, stop. I’m begging you. You’re killing innocent people.”

“No, Emma,
you
are killing innocent people.”

She wondered how right he was. She should just give him the book and stop his madness. She slipped the strap off her shoulder, holding the bag to her side.

Raphael moved closer, a smile spreading across his face. “There’s my girl.”

Her hand fumbled with the zipper as fear shot down her spine. Was this really the right decision?

“
Emma, don’t give up
.”

She stopped, sure she had an auditory hallucination. “
Will
?”

His relief filled her. How was this possible? “
Emma, I don’t know how but I can feel that you’re scared. Just don’t give up
.”

“
Raphael wants the book
.”

“
He’s destroying Albuquerque for the book
?”

“
Yes
.”

“
Then do anything and everything you can do to keep it from him
.”

Raphael stood about ten feet away.

“Stop right there,” she shouted. “That’s close enough.” Will was right. She couldn’t give it to him. If he wanted it this badly, God only knew what he’d do with whatever was inside it. But how was she going to keep it from him without getting more people killed? “Back up, Raphael. You’re making me nervous.”

“That’s too damn bad, Emma. Now hand it over.”

Emma pulled in power and held the backpack out at arm’s length with her right hand. She held her left palm toward it. “Back up now, Raphael, or I’m going to burn it up.”

Panic filled his eyes. “You wouldn’t do that.”

“I’ve already read it all,” she lied. “I’ve got nothing to lose.”

Raphael backed up two steps, his arms out to his sides. “Emma, don’t do anything hasty. You don’t know that you’ve found out everything you need.” He reached a hand toward her, palm up. “Just let me look at it and I’ll hand it back when I’m done. I promise.”

“I’ve learned better than to trust one of your or anyone else’s promises. Your promises mean nothing to me.”

He nodded his head, hand extended. “Fair enough. I deserve that. Just don’t destroy it. You still need it.”

“Why? What’s in it?”

“Let’s look at it together and I’ll show you.”

He was bluffing. “First tell me how you know something is in here. Surely, you’ve read this or a copy at some time if it’s so important. The chain-link fence at the Vinco Potentia compound wouldn’t be enough to keep
you
out.”

Sirens wailed in the distance, adding to Emma’s anxiety. This had to be over before the police showed up or more people would get hurt. Raphael would probably kill them all.

“You’re right. I have seen it before. But after the rules changed, I went to the compound the day I left you back in Tennessee, and found that it was gone.” He took a step forward. “Emma, you don’t understand. The book holds the rules. The sovereign rules. If the game changes, the rules will appear in the book. I don’t trust Aiden to tell them all to me. In fact, I think he purposely has withheld key information. I
need
to know what’s in there.”

Emma watched his face, fairly certain he was telling the truth.

“Emma, can’t you see that my survival depends on the information in that book?”

“Which is why Alex wanted it too.”

A wild look filled Raphael’s eyes. “Yes! Exactly! The one with all the rules has a better chance and knows all the loopholes. All I’m asking for is a fair chance.”

He was right. It wasn’t fair to fight a game that you didn’t know all the rules to. Her arm lowered and relief covered his face.

“That’s it, my love. Just hand it over.”

She remembered his words in the coffee shop.
What good is power if you can’t use it
? Raphael deserved a chance at survival, but did he deserve a chance at controlling the world?

“Well, isn’t this cute, you two, playing in the street together,” Alex called from down the block. He was an odd sight, picking his way through debris in his expensive loafers and pristine dress pants, shirt, and tie.

“Alex.” Raphael held his hands out to the side, grinning as he turned to face him. “What a pleasant surprise. Or should I call you President Alex now?”

“Ha! Just Alex for now. Perhaps His Royal Majesty later. I haven’t figured out what my title will be.” He looked over at Emma. “I take it we’re both after the same thing.”

For once, Emma knew it wasn’t her they were talking about.

She lifted her chin. “How’d you know where to find us?”

Alex laughed. “
Really
? You sent a calling card through the whole city. My biggest problem was getting away.”

Emma took several slow steps backward.

Raphael lifted his hand and the ground cracked behind her, the street separating several feet. “Not so fast, Emma.”

She wobbled but kept her balance. “You know, Raphael, I might be more willing to cooperate if you weren’t so hostile.”

“So did you figure out how to read it?” Alex asked.

“She claims she’s read it all and now she’s threatening to destroy it.”

“
What
?” Panic laced Alex’s words. “Emma, I know we’ve had our differences, but be reasonable.”

The sirens grew louder. They’d be here any minute. She had to get out of here. “I don’t want to fight you two. I don’t want to fight anyone. This isn’t my fight. I just want my son and to be left alone. Can’t you understand that?”

“It’s not us you have to convince of that, Emma,” Raphael said. “It’s your father.”

Which was hopeless.

Alex moved closer to Raphael. If she could push the cargo van beside the two men into them
and
make the gas tank explode…

She held the backpack out again, her palm facing it as she let the energy fill her. Tears burned her eyes. This could all go so terribly wrong. “I’m sorry,” she whispered.

Fear covered Raphael’s face as he lunged forward. “Emma! Don’t do it!”

His approach scared her and her power released in Alex’s direction before she had a chance to aim it at the van.

Alex hit the ground as Raphael pressed forward.

“Go back!” she shouted, her energy pushing him away.

The sky filled with dark clouds and thunder boomed overhead.

The first police cars screeched to a halt a half-block away.

She aimed for the van, her energy crashing into the gas tank. The explosion rocked the ground as she pushed it toward them then turned to run.

“Emma!”

She’d forgotten about the crack in the ground but had enough momentum to leap over, falling to her knees as she landed.

As she took off running, she ignited cars behind her to slow Raphael and Alex down. Police cars blocked the end of the street, the officers filling the road.

Damn it.

She ran down the sidewalk, tearing around the corner of a building to the parking lot, just before the building crumpled to the ground. An explosion followed, shooting debris higher into the air. She fumbled with the car door and climbed inside as pieces of concrete fell around her, then took off toward the street on the opposite side of the lot.

Raphael stood in the middle of the exit, his eyes wild with rage, his body encased in a dense green glow. Alex was nowhere to be seen. The police were behind her, entering the parking lot, drawn by Raphael’s gleam.

Raphael seemed like her biggest concern at this point. The parking lot was ringed with a metal chain slung through posts, with only two exits. One blocked by police and the other by Raphael. He took a step toward her. “What are you going to do? Run me over?”

She would if she had to.