Undertow (24 page)

             
Relief flooded his body and he quickly brought his hands back to her face. His sea-blue eyes became swallowed by the blackness that poured from his pupils, sending a chill down my back.  He leaned forward over Ana and his body tensed as beautiful, black lacey designs appeared on his face. They were the same marks that Rysse had when he killed Elizabeth and I was so shocked, that I fell backwards off my heels, landing on my rear with a thud. He didn’t break his concentration however, and the markings lengthened, disappearing down his neck and under his shirt.

Reappearing on his arms and hands, the design flowed outward onto Ana and down her own chest. The markings pulsed softly, creating a warm glow that covered Ana’s body. After a few moments, Kian released her and the markings on both of them vanished.

I couldn’t move, amazed at what I just witnessed.

His eyes fading back to blue, Kian slumped slightly, as if all the strength was drained from him. I noticed that his shirt began to darken further, as if he began bleeding more, but he didn’t take his eyes off Ana. He moved his hands to either of her arms as if he was pinning her to the floor.

              “What are you doing?” I asked, alarm flashing through me as Ana started to moan and I pulled myself back to kneeling.

             
“Healing at an accelerated rate will save her life, but it can be. . . painful.” He looked at my worried face then to Ana’s, which was beginning to look strained. “Holding her keeps her from further injuring herself.”

             
Ana began to moan louder. She began to make jerking motions with her pinned arms and her legs started to kick, as if trying to gain traction on the floor. She began to plead, crying out for Kian to make it stop, as if she was in a fog. It was torturous to watch as she writhed. Begging quickly turned to screaming as she arched her back against a hidden assault on her body.

Kian, still holding her to the floor had to look away at one point, the sight of her in such agony clearly too much, even for him.  I held her hand, telling her it was going to be okay, but her screams drowned out my voice. 

MJ raced in from the parlor, disheveled with just a pair of pants on. He saw Kian pinning her to the floor as she twisted and arched in pain.

“What the hell are you doing!” he yelled at Kian, collapsing to the floor next to him. “Stop it! You’re killing her!” he said reaching for Kian who was focused only on Ana.

I reached quickly over Ana and grabbed MJ. “Don’t!  He’s healing her!” I yelled over Ana’s screams.

             
“Like hell he is!” barked MJ back at me.

             
“Trust me! It will work!” I yelled with a false confidence, but then the room suddenly went quiet and Ana’s body fell stone still. “Ana?” I asked, panic flowing up my body.

Kian didn’t move, but slowly released her arms. MJ was about to say something, but Kian snapped his head around towards him, glaring.  He turned back to Ana and lowered his head close to her chest, then sat slowly back up, his body visually relaxing.

“She’s okay. She just passed out from the pain, thankfully.” He scooped Ana’s rag doll form into his arms and shifted his shoulder so her head rested over his heart. Carrying her, his shirt stained red, he slowly got to his feet. MJ and I rose with him.

             
“Did it work?” I asked, finally releasing her motionless hand.

He nodded. “Her heart and lungs sound excellent. It worked, but we need to get out of here. Now.”

“House and property are clear, but the sun is setting fast. We definitely need to split, preferably five minutes ago. I’m going to pull the Wrangler around,” he said, dashing out the front door.

“What about the boy from the bridge?” I asked, always the practical one.

“Trust me, he’s dead,” replied Kian, adjusting his grip on Ana.

“Well
there’s a BODY in my room!” I demanded, foreseeing the police asking many questions.

“I’ll take care of it later. If we stay here, the body count will definitely be higher,” said Kian, walking out towards the backdoor in the kitchen with Ana. He turned to me, “Eila. It’s time to go. NOW. I’ll call Raef when we’re in the car.”

I glanced up the staircase to my room one last time and quickly followed Kian out through the kitchen, grabbing the book of my past family as I left.  As we climbed into the Jeep, the sun continued its descent over the curve of Earth, pulling with it the blanket of night.

17

Kian carefully hande
d
Ana off to MJ, who climbed in the back with her. Her body lay motionless on the leather seat, her head in MJ’s lap. He stroked her blonde hair to let her know he was near, but whether she understood or not, was beyond our knowledge.

Driving along the roads to the dock, I watched the cheap cottages whiz past my window. It was the same landscape I had watched float past MJ’s car when he drove me to school that first, fateful day. The day I met Raef, who had come to school posing as a student to find me. To protect me for the sake of a grandmother I had never known.

Why had Elizabeth met Rysse in the town square? Why did she even let him get close enough to grab her? Even worse, it appeared as though she didn’t fight back in my dreams when he grabbed her, instead allowing a white fire to encompass them both, ending their lives. Was that planned? Did she intend to die or was it a horrible accident? The questions were maddening, as if we were navigating a burning house, blindfolded.

But something was wrong with the way she died. Something we were missing. We needed the diary desperately and I gripped the photo book in my lap tightly, watching Kian drive. The hard lines of his face unsettled me as did the memory of him killing the seventeen-year-old in my room.

Even worse, I had felt my own need to murder the boy flow inside my veins and, had I been more adept at my power, I would have killed him without remorse. I knew there was a violence that waited silently inside me, marked only by a brand on my back, and I was terrified. Was it possible I was worse than the Mortis?

I glanced at Kian who was on the phone with Raef and while I could only hear one side of the conversation, it was decidedly heated. From what I could gather, we were going to head to Boston and meet up with Raef. He had followed a lead to the city and may finally have located some useful information relating to the buyer.

Kian quickly dialed the dock, asking that the
Cerberus
be readied to leave ASAP. He ended the call and looked in the review mirror. “MJ? Does Ana have her phone on her?” asked Kian.

“Not sure. Hang on,” said MJ and he reached in her pant pockets searching for her mobile phone. A few seconds passed, then he held up Ana’s lime green phone. “Bingo!”

“Check for Dalca’s cell number. We need to let her know what’s going on. She could be in danger as well,” said Kian, turning down North Street. We were only a couple miles from the docks now. The sun was hidden behind the trees, falling fast.

“Damn. The phone is cracked,” said MJ. “I can’t get it to turn on. It must have been crushed when she fell.”

Kian looked at MJ in the rearview mirror, “Do you have her number?”

“No man. Only Ana did.”

Kian glanced at her still profile and his jaw was set in a hard line. “It’s alright. We’ll deal with it later.”

As we swung around the last brick building on North Street, the
Cerberus
came into view, lit up and elegant in its slip. I could see workers walking along the wooden dock beside her, untying thick white ropes and tossing them onboard.  I looked back at Ana who was still unconscious. I realized we were going to have to carry her past the workers. “What are we going to say about her?” I asked, worried.

“We’ll just say she drank too much and we’re getting her back to her family,” he said, pulling my Jeep into the parking spot next to the yacht. I was about to protest, but he was already out of the car and reaching carefully for the girl he loved last summer.

Kian carried her to the
Cerberus
and climbed quickly onboard. I followed, watching the quizzical looks of two dockworkers. I gestured to Ana and just said, “drunk,” with a weak smile. I wasn’t sure if they bought it, but they continued working.

MJ hurried around the main deck, making sure we were free from the dock. The last streak of sunlight was causing the water to glow like fading embers in a fire.  Certain we were no longer tied, MJ headed up to the top-most fly deck where there was a full, second wheelhouse. I heard the engine roar to life.

I looked through the glass doors to the parlor and saw Kian gently laying Ana on one of the black couches. He pulled a luxurious red throw blanket off a nearby chair and draped it over her.

“Eila? Get in here!” demanded Kian as the yacht shifted slightly under my feet, pulling free of its slip. I wobbled for an instant, then pulled open the glass door and entered the parlor.

The view of boats slipping past us surrounded the room’s view. I looked down at Ana. “How long will she be out?” I asked.

“Probably an hour or two,” said Kian, laying her hands gently over the blanket. He walked to the mahogany bar and pulled open a mirror-smooth black fridge.  Inside were stacks of blood in plastic bags.
A stack of hypodermic needles was in a glass case beside the bags.
Red Bull
, I thought with a nauseating twist.

He grabbed one bag and ripped the little red tip off the top. He started drinking it, nearly chugging it down without pausing. My stomach turned as he finished the bag within seconds, tossing the empty bag in a nearby sink. He leaned on the counter and drew a long, deep breath then glanced out the window.  He almost looked like he was going to be sick. Just thinking about what he had guzzled made my stomach sympathetic as well.

We started to exit the harbor, heading to open water. He leaned forward and reached out to the wall, pushing a button that was attached to a small, silver speaker. He seemed suddenly exhausted, as if all the power he had was finally gone from his body. He was already injured when he gave his strength to Ana and I had a strong suspicion he had pushed himself to a near lethal brink when he saved her.

“When we reach the last buoy, open her up. We need to get to Boston,” said Kian into the speaker. He released the button and held his side as MJ’s voice came back confirming the plan.

Slowly he began unbuttoning his shirt and sliding it off, but the deep gash in his side slowed him down. I walked over to him to help, but he held up his hand to signal me to stop.

“I know. Don’t touch the blood. I got it. Let me help you,” I said.  Carefully I grabbed his shirt and pulled it down off of him. The gash where he had been stabbed was an angry, dark slice on a god-like physique. “I thought you said that will heal fast,” I said, alarmed.

“Well, it ain’t bleeding anymore, is it?” snapped Kian, a little short. I just looked at him. “Sorry,” he said, “Normally it would, but I shared some of my ability with Ana. The blood we have here will reset my system and speed up the healing once again. Still hurts like hell, though. I’ll be fine by the time we reach Boston.”

“Thank you. You saved my life,” I said, reaching out and taking his hand.

Kian looked uneasy with the praise and surprised at my touch. He cleared his throat. “You shouldn’t be thanking me,” he said, releasing my hand. “I should never have left. I was just frustrated with Ana. I don’t want her to be part of this – it’s too damn dangerous,” he said, looking over to her on the couch. “Now look at her.  Two or three minutes later and both of you would have been dead. And that
is
my fault.” He shook his head.

“Look,” I reasoned, trying to get in his line of sight. “That kid got in against all known rules, right? I mean, how would we have ever known the house was broken?”

“Breached,” corrected Kian.

“Right. Breached. How were we supposed to know that? It’s Elizabeth’s house for crying out loud!”

“It’s
your house
Eila. Don’t forget that,” said Kian. “You should expect more of me. Elizabeth would.” I looked at him, as if I truly saw him for the first time. He was angry with himself, but he shouldn’t take the full burden of responsibility.  We had all been too foolish with our assumptions.

“You made sure Ana and I would live to see another day, and I get to thank you for that.” I looked him in the eye, “We are alive because you risked your own life for us. Don’t forget that, because I won’t.” 

Kian looked at me, then Ana. “You know I can’t help you like I did for Ana, right? It won’t work for you. Linking life-forces like that would be fatal for you and probably for us. Raef and I may be immune to your power, but your life force would most likely kill us.” In reality, it had not occurred to me that they couldn’t heal me, only hurt me. I swallowed and nodded.

“Guarding you means not allowing these mistakes to occur.  If you are gravely injured, only a hospital and real doctor can possibly help you. Understand?” 

I looked out the window. I knew he was right.

From beneath our feet I could hear the engine growl deeper and the angle of the floor slanted up slightly as the bow of the boat rose from the water. I steadied myself slightly on the edge of the counter, listening to the engine. The tension needed release so I broke the silence. “Boston?” I asked.

Kian nodded, “It makes more sense to head to Boston and pick up Raef than hang around here, where we obviously have uninvited visitors. The boat is safe.”

“I’ve heard that before,” I muttered, unconvinced. “You said Raef had found something?”

“He said he had followed a lead to Boston. That he had a possible name,” said Kian, reaching into the fridge for another, uh, drink. This time, however, he loaded several of the hypodermics with blood from a bag and systematically injected himself on the upper arm. I looked away so I wouldn’t puke.

When he finished tossing the last syringe into the sink, he spoke again, “To be honest, most of the conversation with Raef was about me being a screw-up. He was livid that you had been in danger.”

I didn’t know how to respond to that, but secretly I was pleased that Raef was so upset. It was another sign that I was more than just someone to guard.

Kian reached into one of the cabinets and pulled out a small, black flashlight. He stepped close to me. “Look at me,” he instructed, flicking on the flashlight. He tested the light strength by shining it in his palm.

“What are you doing?”

“Checking your eyes to make sure you don’t have a concussion. You may be Lunaterra but you are still very breakable.” He shone the light in and out of each of my eyes and had me follow his finger as he moved it in and out of my peripheral vision. He then placed the flashlight down on the counter and felt my head, his hands slowly traveling over my skull to the back of my neck. His touch caused every inch of my skin he grazed to tingle.

“You got a good bump on the back of your head, but no signs of a concussion. Your head must be like a rock,” said Kian.

“Yeah, that’s what Mae says.” My heart clenched thinking of her.

“You were off-balance at the house. Are you still dizzy?”

“No. I’m good.” For the most part anyway. Processing what went down was a whole other issue.

Kian stretched his neck and looked down at his side. Sure enough, the wound had grown smaller. “Impressive,” I said, nodding to his rib, but he was already walking over to Ana.

He reached down and gently swept a blonde hair from her face.  He sat down next to her on the couch and picked up her wrist, turning it over in his hand so he could feel her pulse. He sat there for a minute, watching her face and feeling the reassuring thrum of her heart through her veins. Finally he rested her hand back on her chest and pulled her blanket higher.

He looked over to me, “Can you watch her while I go grab some clean clothes?”

“Of course,” I said walking over to the chair next to Ana and sitting down.

Kian looked at her one more time and then stood. Before he could walk away, I spoke up, “She is going to forgive you, you know.”

He turned to me and just gave a weak, unconvinced smile. He then gathered up the contents of the sink and walked out of the parlor. I could hear him descend the stairs to the floor below.

The splash of the waves combined with the hum of the engine was like its own lullaby.  The adrenaline that had flooded my body was now long gone, replaced with a body-soaking fatigue. I watched Ana, but as I did, my eyes got heavier and heavier. I closed my eyes, just to rest for a moment, but sleep came quickly and I nodded off.

I woke with a jolt almost an hour and a half later.  My heart was racing as the nightmare of Bridge Boy attacking me all over again faded from my mind’s eye. For a moment I forgot where I was.

I looked around the parlor, which was now only lit by a few table lamps. Outside the windows the softly lit decking could be seen, as the ocean beyond was now black.  In the distance I could see the lights of Boston. 

MJ walked by on the outside deck.  He seemed to be organizing the ropes that had tied us to the docks in Barnstable Harbor.  I looked over to where Ana was sleeping, but was surprised to see the couch empty.  I stood up, looking around the room. 

MJ must have seen me move and opened the back glass door. “You’re awake,” he said, smiling.

“Uh, yeah. But where’s Ana?” I asked, concerned.

“She’s in the galley, eating. I made some chicken parm for us.  Go help yourself. You must be starving.”

I was, in fact, famished.  I glanced back out the window, “Where are we?”

“We just passed Hull and are coming into Quincy Bay. We’re going to dock at the marina in about twenty minutes.” I nodded and got to my feet. “How are you feeling?” he asked.