by S. M. Savoy
“Yes, sir.” Marcus saluted but didn’t stop running.
Charlie wished he could run too. He wished he could do anything. Waiting was intolerable but it was all he had.
“Joy, stay with them—”
“I’ve got it,” Stasia said, and Lee whooped.
“Ditching the jet,” Brenda said and despite himself Charlie grinned at her disappointed tone.
“Marcus, summon Brenda too. She can help Stasia while you get the boat. Get one big enough for all of us, legally if you can but do what you have too. I want us ready to go in one hour.”
One hour, his soul rejoiced. Soon, very soon, he promised the magic.
“Drew, see if you can get on board their ship and place the sensors, but be careful. Don’t give us away!”
“Yes, sir.”
Charlie muted his end and stretched, shaking out his hands before rising to grab his duffle bag. It only contained two swords and a shield. It was all he needed.
- 22 -
My Sara
Charlie crept along the top rail of a four-story yacht and observed the crowd below him.
Only one guard manned this topmost level, and he was paying no attention. He sat in a lounge chair on the opposite side of the ship, smoking and admiring the stars.
“Target one in sight,” he said, and his pulse leaped. His magic rushed from him so fast it hurt and made his ears pop, but he recalled it quickly, holding it back in an iron grip. Men and women spoke and danced on the lower deck below him, and all eyed his wife with avarice. The enemy his soul screamed but he couldn’t tear his gaze from Sara to memorize their faces.
Just the sight of her was enough to fill the hollow places inside himself with light. It was enough to begin breaking up the tar-like feel encasing his limbs. His magic hummed against his skin and he imagined it too was working to free him from the sensation of being mired. Thoughts of the coming fight made his breath come fast. Passion, he supposed. His hatred heated him the same way. He passionately wanted to kill those responsible. Muscles in his arms flexed, the feeling smooth and freeing. The sight of her had given him back his soul, freed him to be what he was— a warrior— and he hadn’t even spoken to her yet.
His pulse jumped as he imagined the feel of her warm skin under his hand. He hadn’t let himself think of it, not even when he knew she was alive, and he didn’t really want to think of it now, but he couldn’t stop himself from staring, memorizing the curves of her. The brightness of her hair, the blue of her eyes, all called to him. But it shifted the heat that was filling him, redirecting his passion.
He closed his eyes and forced himself to count to ten. The magic was as conflicted as he was. It wanted to touch her as much as it wanted to kill their enemies too.
Soon, he thought and the hum beneath his skin increased.
Anticipation. He burned with it. The familiar feel of honey coated him. He was ready.
He opened his eyes as a man approached her and handed her a glass of wine. She smiled but seemed uncomfortable, peering over her shoulder with an anxious expression. A real smile crossed her face when she spotted Oz. She left the man and hurried as fast as her limp allowed to Oz, linking her arm in his. Oz kissed her, placing his hand over hers.
Charlie’s pulse leaped again. “Target two spotted.”
Oz and Sara danced slowly, smiling into each other’s eyes. The music was low. Charlie could hardly hear it. He glanced at his HUD.
Five minutes remained on the countdown.
Arm-and-arm Sara and Oz walked slowly to the bow of the ship away from the rest of the guests. Charlie followed on the top deck, keeping them in sight. They talked for a moment before Oz left her side, limping heavily, leaving her alone on the bow. “Target two retreating” he said softly and jumped down to the lower deck.
Sara started in surprise when he cleared his throat.
“Oh, good evening. You startled me.” Her voice was heavily slurred but understandable. Her scarred hand clutched her throat where her pulse jumped. She eyed him uneasily, and he didn’t blame her. It was odd to be wearing sunglasses at night, and he wasn’t dressed at all like the other guards. He’d left his sword and shield in the boat but wore his combat clothes except for his facemask.
Charlie gritted his teeth and forced the magic back, forcing his gaze from the red scars on her face and hands, forcing himself not to touch her. She had no idea who he was.
“Did you see my husband?” Sara peered over Charlie’s shoulder, biting her lower lip. “I thought you were him returning.”
Charlie stepped forward and her eyes widened and she took a step back.
“I did,” he murmured huskily. “I’m sorry, we haven’t been introduced, Charles Hayes.” He stared at her intently, but she showed no sign of recognition.
“Beth Blake,” Sara said. “You must be a friend of my husband’s or maybe my father’s?”
“Yes,” Charlie agreed without specifying which he was friends with.
“Zach should be back soon.” Sara backed further away, opening the small purse she clutched under one arm and taking out a bottle that she fumbled and dropped.
Charlie picked it up, reading the label. She was taking pain medication and it made his pulse pound again. He dropped a pill into her hand without touching her.
“Thank you,” she said and took the pill, placing a light hand on her stomach and closing her eyes a moment. When she opened them, she blushed and glanced away.
“We have target two,” Joy said.
Charlie grinned.
Sara smiled back.
“Have you been married long?” Charlie asked.
The blushed deepened and her hand rose to her stomach again. An awful suspicion took hold of him. If she was pregnant, he couldn’t take her this way, the stress could cause a miscarriage. She’d never forgive him if she lost a baby. They’d need a new plan to hold them both until she safely delivered.
“Not long, no.” She turned away, placing both hands on the rail.
“Are you expecting?” he asked bluntly, and Joy gasped.
Sara blushed so hotly he imagined he could feel the heat of it. Her head lowered and she didn’t answer.
“I only ask because of the medication. If you’re seasick, I can get you something that won’t hurt you.”
Sara turned back, a shy smile on her face. “We aren’t expecting yet. We want to be. My father...” She trailed off, appearing to remember she was speaking with a stranger and shrugged. “The pills are for my hands. Sometimes they hurt.”
“I can imagine.” Charlie glared at the scars on her hands, dizzy with relief. She wasn’t expecting Oz’s child. He could safely remove her from here tonight.
She blushed again. “We were in an accident; I don’t remember it at all. I don’t remember anything really, just Zachary. I remember loving him. Our hands and faces were cut up very badly by the windshield. My father has us seeing specialists and a doctor travels with us. The pain isn’t bad, they just tingle at times.”
“When was this?”
She turned toward him again and took a step closer.
“Have we met before? Your voice is familiar.” She glanced at his hands and blushed.
Does she have a memory of me somewhere, locked in her head?
Sara took another step closer. He smiled at her and the pulse in her neck pounded. It was all he could do to resist placing his hand on it.
She set the glass of wine on the railing and wiped her palms on her skirt.
“Sara...”
She began to sweat as her pupils dilated. One hand rose and reached to him.
“My name is Beth,” she said faintly.
“You are my Sara,” he said and touched her hand. A sigh he barely heard came from her lips as she fainted at his feet. He scooped her up as his magic surrounded her and he jumped over the side of the ship, landing in a small rowboat beside Hawk and breaking the No-See-Um the boat was hidden under but no one on
board the yacht appeared to notice.
“Target one acquired!” Fierce exultation filled his voice.
“You bastards!” Oz struggled in Marcus’s grip “Don’t hurt her! My father-in-law will give you whatever you want. I’ll do anything! Please, I’m begging you! Let Beth go!”
“Calm down. We won’t hurt either of you!” Charlie hugged Oz to him. “We won’t hurt you,” he repeated softly and let Oz take Sara from him.
Oz hunched away from him, clutching Sara awkwardly to his chest, his tear-filled eyes glaring at his captors.
“Hawk,” Charlie said, and Oz batted at Hawk as he reached forward with the syringe.
Oz screamed a breathless sound as his grip on Sara relaxed and he tumbled to the side.
Marcus grabbed him, turning his glowing blue eyes to Charlie.
“Her too,” Charlie said, and he hugged Sara tightly as Hawk injected her. His magic was ecstatic, and he wanted nothing more than to hold her and feel her breath.
“Chief,” Marcus said and nudged his arm.
Charlie wiped his teary eyes, he hadn’t even realized he’d begun to cry, and Spell-Stole her heal. The red line crossing her brow grew lighter.
“They need more than we have,” Marcus said angrily. The heal he casted had no noticeable result.
“We knew they would,” Hawk said reassuringly as he wrapped Oz in a blanket.
“We’re in position,” Stasia said impatiently, and Charlie was overcome with a fierce desire to fight.
“Marcus, get them to Todd. Hawk, you’re with me.” He placed Sara at Marcus’s feet, summoned his sword into his hand, and leaped for the rail, screaming his attack cry. Rick, Mike, and Marcus echoed him, and Charlie laughed as he casted Waylay and stabbed the startled guard at the rail. He let the body fall and leapt again, straight up to the rail above him, pulling himself over as the guard on this deck fired.
Men and woman screamed, and a burst of gunfire rent the air from the other side of the ship.
Charlie ran forward and ripped the guard’s arm off, throwing it and the gun over the side as he hacked off the guard’s head. A flaming arrow streaked by his face and the resultant explosion blew out the wide windows and sent small pieces of shrapnel among the gathered men and women who screamed, pushing and shoving each other and trampling their dead and injured in their haste to escape.
Charlie crashed through the remains of the glass and swung as a flurry of arrows cut into the screaming crowd. Another smaller explosion started a fire at the podium and smoke mixed with the magic, obscuring the life-sized portraits of his naked wife and Oz.
He yanked a framed copy of Sara’s dissertation off the wall and beat the man who cowered beneath it to death with it. The woman beside him whimpered and held up her hands.
“Please—”
He ripped out her neck. Blood doused him in a warm torrent. He leaped to the next screaming woman.
The magic hated these people. They were the Enemy and Charlie agreed. He had no mercy as he hacked his way through the crowd.
“Stasia?”
“I’ve got him,” she said, and Charlie screamed his attack again, leaving the corpses to the growing fire and jumping back to the second deck.
“Liniar is dead and so is the butcher,” Joy said angrily. “They were killed by the guards.”
“He should’ve suffered!” Stasia snarled.
“Liz, how are their vitals?” Charlie wiped his bloody face on his sleeve as he ran to Stasia’s position.
“All good but I’ll feel better when I’m with them.”
“Ha! I won’t feel better until Tomas’s severed head is at my feet!”
“Charlie, he’s her father…” If she doesn’t remember, and you kill him, what then? If she does remember— oh god, if you have any mercy make her forget the last months,” Liz prayed suddenly. “If she does remember, she can decide for herself.”
“That’s cruel, crueler than my deciding it. She’d never choose that, except in the heat of anger. You propose I let her kill him and then live with the guilt? God, Liz!” He held up his hand, halting the restless movements of the magic wielders who crouched beside the door to a stateroom. Glowing blue eyes followed his movements as he paced around them with quick, short strides.
Liz said, “You can’t kill her father.”
“Watch me!” he snarled as he kicked in the door to Tomas’s stateroom.
Tomas fired, the bullets lodging in Charlie’s chest plate but doing no damage. He didn’t even feel them. Tomas retreated, still firing as Charlie stalked forward.
Stasia glided past him. Her expression was fierce and she clutched a bloody dagger in each hand.
Charlie let her take position without comment. She was letting him choose the manner of Tomas’s death.
The gun clicked empty, and Tomas dropped it, backing from Charlie until his back hit the wall, watching with wide eyes as Charlie strode to the computer consoles on the desk.
“See this, Liz? This is what Sara is worth to her father!” Bids filled the screen, a blind auction, Sara and Oz’s worth broken down into categories, eggs, semen, and time shares. He smashed the monitors to pieces.
“Sara—”
“Might have mercy, but I have none. And is it fair to ask her? To make her decide?”
Rick entered followed by Brenda who yanked Rick back with Protective Companion and grasped his arm hard.
Stasia left Tomas and ran to Rick, becoming visible.
Tomas goggled at her with a mixture of dread and greed.
“It’s all clear, Chief,” Joy said. But he’d known it already. He felt the magic’s satisfaction and the ship was perfectly silent now.
“I do love Sara,” Tomas said but he sputtered to a halt as Charlie jumped forward. The two men stared at each other a moment.
Tomas said, “I handled it badly. I know that now. It was cruel and didn’t need to be, but I didn’t know it until too late. We can work together. Let me have my Meredith back and I’ll give you—”
A sharp report of gunfire and Tomas’s surprised face coincided with Charlie’s scream as he lunged forward.
Charlie screamed again, this in time in rage as his sword connected to Tomas’s already dead body.
He hacked the corpse to pieces, and still panting in rage, turned to his brother.
Rick dropped the smoking gun as he said, “I did it for you. His blood can’t be on your hands.”
Charlie gazed down at his bloody hands and shrieked. He wanted to kill him. He needed to kill him.
Joy leapt forward and hugged him.
“Let it go. It’s over. He’s dead.” She continued talking but he couldn’t hear her over the blood pounding in his head. The room wavered, growing darker and brighter, making him dizzy with the changes. He staggered, taking Joy to the floor with him. Hawk grabbed his arm and pulled him up.
“They’re all dead,” Hawk said in satisfaction. “Every damned one of the sick bastards.”
Charlie let Hawk pull him from the room.
“Burn it, Lee.”
Manny said, “Pulling the plug.”
A series of rippling explosions sounded from beneath them and Hawk tugged him faster.
They leapt off the rail, floating to the water and hovering inches above it from Brenda’s Ascension spell. Lee began to cast. Glowing balls of fire raced from her fingertips, blowing through the ship with satisfying crashes.
“We have incoming,” Gina warned.
“Keep casting,” Charlie said, and Hawk began shooting. Flame flickered off the water and black smoke rose in thick plumes as the boat sank. Lights in the distance grew closer.
“Chief?” Gina asked worriedly.
“We should go,” Joy whispered and took his arm, pulling him easily while ascended. He willed Ascension off and sank into the water, stealing Hawk’s air bubble and propelling himself downward to hack at the sinking boat.
The water slowed Lee’s f
ireballs but didn’t dampen the strength of the impacts.
“Let him,” Stasia said and grasped a rough edge and yanked.
Mike charged, leaving a wake of small bubbles from the strength of the spell’s propulsion, and he yelled his attack while he punched and kicked at the boat.
Charlie lost track of time as he hit the boat, spending his rage on the useless destruction. He knew it was a waste of time and could lead to discovery but was unable to stop. He needed the boat broken, shattered beyond repair or recognition.
“Charlie,” Liz said, and he jerked in surprise to find her beside him. She hugged him quickly. Manny swam beside him and handed him a detonator.
The resultant explosion blew him ten feet backward, tumbling him through the water. He wished he could do it again and stayed to watch the pieces drift to the ocean floor.
* * *
Brilliant yellow light encased Sara and Oz who lay on the deck of the Rheal Lucky, which had just arrived. Both were still sedated and unaware.
The scars marring their faces and hands faded within seconds, but the Scouts kept casting until the lightning appeared.
Charlie hunkered beside them, his gaze intent as the lightning lingered.
“It’s working,” Liz said unnecessarily.
The lightning surrounding Sara and Oz dissipated five minutes later. Charlie smoothed her hair and kissed her cheek before picking her up. He placed her in their bed and backed away to check on Oz and let Liz examine her.
Marcus had placed Oz in the rear cabin and sat at the foot of his bed with the remainder of the magic rods at his feet. Brenda and Lee glanced to the door but continued to settle Oz, covering him with a light blanket and combing out his damp hair.
“There’s enough in the ship. Use all you need,” Charlie said.
Brenda gestured to the bandage Lee had wrapped around his forearm. “Their healed, Chief. It hasn’t absorbed.
“Keep checking and use Soothe on Marcus, then you, then Lee, and then Oz for the next few hours.”
“Yes, sir,” Brenda said as Marcus said, “I will.”
Charlie nodded acknowledgment. Soothe would help but his warriors needed to release their rage.