by Alexa Dare
As the enclosed ATV traveled, Ross drove, keeping an eye on the path out front and sighting the vehicle tracks, which were much like, but more limber, than tank treads.
Grouped inside the new car-scented interior with Ross and the five Children of the Elements and their prisoner Delbert, Nora glanced back at her son, who sat in the third row in a two-seater seat set on the right side of a thin strip of open aisle.
The chug of the tracks over protruding roots and jutting rocks, vibrated with a gentle hum through the hull as Nora handed out the last of the beef jerky inside a cab that reminded her of a bus or van, but with low seats like a car.
Head turned toward the side window, Vincent stared into the gloom as they drove closer to his father’s camp.
“Except for a few flaming torches in what looks to be an encampment, there are no lights,” Ross said, easing the all-terrain to a shuddering stop. “Likely a forced blackout. The torches converge on one particular area. Odds are they’re rallying to mount an attack on Briar Patch.”
“Nobody’s at home inside the hole in the ground.” Darcy Lynn nudged on to her knees and looked out into the woods.
“Let me out, and I’ll hike over to the next valley.” Delbert, hands bound again and eyebrows doing the worry dance, spoke from the row behind Vincent.
“Here’s what we’re going to do.” Nora ignored Delbert and took in a steadying breath that left a flat, uncertain bland taste in her mouth. “We will act as if we’re turning Delbert and the children over to the group, then I will take off my gloves, and the children will rally together to destroy their camp.”
“All of it?” Darcy Lynn’s wide-eyed gaze held fear.
“Every bit.” Nora gestured toward the shapes of cabins and tents several yards into the trees.
“Why can’t we just leave?” Hannah sat across and farther back and opposite of Vincent. Her pre-teen nasal pitch skewered Nora’s ears. “We’ll find another place to live.”
“Yates turned off the air system at Briar Patch. He meant to hurt us.” Abe, in the seat in front of Nora’s son, crossed his arms. “Is that why you want us to do this?”
“If we stop him, he and others like him will leave us alone.” Cheeks flushed with warmth, Nora lifted her chin.
Seated directly behind Ross, Darcy Lynn stared through the windows at the tent and cabin outlines. The little girl fidgeted in her seat and held Junior’s hand.
“I need my pencil and pad,” said Vincent, speaking for the first time since leaving Briar Patch Mountain.
“After.” Nora glanced at him, only to skirt her gaze away. “We’ll let you deal with those, um, remaining.”
“Beforehand,” Vincent said, “I want to meet Brockton Yates.”
Ross shut down the all-terrain. The sudden silence surged into a tense hush. “Let’s get ready. Kids, come with me. You too, Delbert. We need to prepare for a show of force.”
“I’m not so sure about this.” Delbert pressed back in his seat so far that his chins multiplied into rolls. “Bringing me here is so not a good idea.”
“Get a move on.” Nora got up and turned to the side to allow the others to exit.
Ross tried to capture her gaze.
Instead, she slipped past him and edged down the narrow aisle to sit next to her son. In the moonlight filtering through the windows of the bulletproof glass, she spoke low and firm. “You will meet Yates, but this isn’t going to be like old home week on the farm. Even if he is your father, he’s our enemy.”
“Allow me to meet him and get to know him a little.” Her son drew shapes in the fog of his breath on the window. “To have a chance to get to know him.”
Nora fisted her fingers to keep from seizing his hands. “Vincent, don’t do this. If we don’t take care of this now, we’ll either be captured and used to kill, or we’ll be hunted and on the run for the rest of our lives.”
“You still want normal for me?”
“Just imagine. High school. Friends. Driving a car and cruising the Dairy Dream on Friday and Saturday night. Don’t you want those things?”
“No, Nora, I truly do not.” He breathed out a long exhale.
“Please, Vincent, keep an open mind.”
Her son’s glare, in the low beams of moonlight, sank like fangs into her. She defied the absurd urge to reach out and comfort him. “Stay put. You’ll get your chance soon.”
“We’re ready.” In the chill, Ross retrieved crude fuel-soaked torches from an outside vehicle hatch and handed them out.
Eyes and nose burning from the kerosene fumes, Nora stood in the all-terrain’s doorway and darted gazes at the approaching dots of flames. A sense of power ramped from her toes to the crown of her head. “It’s time. Abe, light our torches.”
Under the steady stare of the teenager, the torches made of broken tree limbs and gasoline-soaked wrapped strips of a shredded camo jacket smoked, then flared.
“Wait until I give you the signal.” Nora stepped outside and pulled the control box from her jacket pocket.
Delbert slid behind the ATV. “There's dozens of them on their way here.”
Down at her side near her outer thigh, Nora flipped the box over and took out the lithium power source. Meeting the children and teens’ accusing gazes, she tossed the separated parts near the all-terrain’s track. “We have to work as a team on this.”
“You’re not afraid we’ll turn on you?” The snotty little Hannah squinted in the blazing glow of their torches.
“Hannah...” Abe put on his vision-blocking glasses and faced the trees.
“Nora, no doubt, has a backup plan to keep us in line. She always does,” Vincent said from beside her. “Always be prepared, correct?”
Nora removed two sheets of folded sketch paper and a pencil from her other jacket pocket and offered them to her son.
His surly snatch ripped them from her grip.
“Hold off on drawing for now. Please.” Nora leaned out the door. “I trust you and believe in you. In each of you. Truly I do. I’m sorry to have to put all of you through this.”
Vincent’s gaze, so like his father’s, bore into hers. “After sixteen years of hearing you say you are sorry, the actual words mean nothing. And, alas, neither does you saying so.”
Yelling broke out from deeper in the woods. Dozens more torches flared into flame to join the earlier few that raced toward them. The flares of flames closed in, and Nora sucked in the tainted air to bolster herself. “Stay close to one another.” With every high-EMF fiber in her being, she longed to hug these gifted children close. Yet, she could no more trust herself with them than she had all those years with her own son.
Ross slipped a gloved hand into hers. Leather upon leather, his touch brought her more comfort in that moment than any she had ever before known.
Warmth curled and spread under her ribs.
“Look, what we have here.” Brockton Yates stalked through the trees. “Nora, you’ve saved us some steps. Been a long time.” He eyed her up and down. “My, my, you’ve grown into a fine-looking woman.”
“It’s been a while.” The words choked her. The muscles in her neck locked until her jaw trembled. Her insides chilled in a blink, and she dared not chance a look in Vincent’s direction.
My son deserves a much better mother.
Yates stared toward the children gathered near the all-terrain vehicle. As if a switch flipped, his snide leer slipped into an open-mouthed oval of awe. As he studied the sixteen-year-old, his grin spread and hinged his jaw closed, until the man she recalled from the past stood in the dusky spring woods. “This fine fellow must be Vincent.” He held out his hand in an offer of a handshake. “A pleasure to finally meet you, son.”
“You are not quite as tall as I expected.” Vincent stepped onto the crunch of last winter’s leaves but did not raise his arm to shake his father’s hand. “I always thought Nora would go for men rather taller than she.” He jerked his thumb toward Ross. “Like him.”
Yates’s smile swiped away as if
scrubbed away by a dirty, soured dishrag.
“You’re quite an astute young man, though neither you nor your mother is as smart as you think you are.” Yates grunted. With a pivot, he raised his hand again.
“Dang good job spying on their group, Delbert. You got us in so that Brody could plant the worm needed to take over their entire system.”
The bulgy-eyed man sidled away from the Briar Patch group to step behind Nora’s old flame.
By her sides, Nora, fingers stinging with want, fisted and unfisted her hands.
Yates nodded at the man standing alert and ready beside her. “Fitz, good to see you. We expected you to bring them in a little earlier in the evening.”
As if shoved, Nora stumbled back a step. Tautness seared bands of pain from her jaws through her neck. The pain ricocheting through her head nearly brought her to her knees. Ross tenderly gripped her still-gloved hand. “Nora, please, there’s so much you don’t know.”
“I suspected that Delbert was a traitor” As if an unseen fist rammed her, Nora placed her free hand over her belly. The lock of her spine kept her from bending double, yet she swayed on her feet. As if from the taste of tart sherbet-filled punch recipe, a shudder rammed her jaws. Arm shaking, she slipped a hand behind her, tucking her fingers inside the waistband of her pants to work her glove free.
“Nora Belle, you look as if you had a bit of a shock.” Yates chuckled.
“Don’t call me that,” Nora ground out.
“You didn’t think a man could truly be drawn to a woman he can’t actually touch.” Yates’ mouth formed a loose-lipped leer that stretched into a smirk and then an outright sneer. “Did you?”
The snickers of the group, dozens of men, and a half-dozen women emerging from the trees and brush, landed on her like slaps to her heated cheeks.
“Nora, please, you have to listen to me.” Ross gripped her gloved fingers tight. “This isn’t what you think.”
“Really?” Nora tugged free. “You’ve turned us over to the enemy. What would you expect me to think?”
The children shuffled close to the all-terrain and to her.
How might she comfort them, when she was in no position of power and in danger herself?
FOOL-fool. FOOL-fool. Like primal drums, the heart strums of the militia members somehow reached her ears and branded her as the fool she truly was.
From behind, one of the children pressed a hand against her glove. The abrupt coldness at her back led Nora to believe Hannah helped her. With the girl’s help, the leather slipped away, and Nora pulled free. A deep chill buffeted her fingers.
“Nora, please, let me explain.” Ross moved close when he should have bolted out of reach. “Yates can keep the kids safer than any corrupt military agency can. He’s a rational man. We can sit down and work out a plan for all of us moving forward together.”
“No need to explain.” Nora blinked hot and fast. Mocking the man’s former boss, she said, “Stand down, soldier.”
“Nora, dear, always a pleasure.” Doctor Halverson, a retired local doctor, stepped from the shadows and joined Yates. “Wish our little reunion occurred under better circumstances… ”
“Dr. Halverson?” The air sucked from Nora’s lungs. Would she ever take a normal breath again that wasn’t tinged with betrayal? “It all makes sense now. You were the doctor that helped to do this to us. After the part you played in the project, you’re part of these rebels too?”
“I’ve always played a role in the grand scheme of things around these parts. What would make more sense than to use a country doctor as a front? Well, it worked, and this hick doctor outfoxed them all.”
“How could you have done such cruel things?” asked Nora. “You harmed dozens.”
“The project needed a patsy, and I needed the payroll. A yoke forged by the melding of greed and the need for power.” Doc looped his thumbs into the bib of his overalls.
Wind whipped tree leaves. The area heated, then cold fell in a frantic rush.
A shiver trekked the length of Nora’s spine. Unable to take a full breath, she stroked the pad of her thumb along the finger ridges of the hand she hid behind her back. She savored the lovely tingles as an eager sting jabbed under her nails.
“Best get them into the stockade,” said Doc, “and batten down the hatches before the storm comes in.”
One of the torch-bearing men pointed. “Sir, uh, uh, uh, it’s worse than a storm.”
Toward the front of the all-terrain, the wind around Darcy Lynn whirled. Swirling pine scent-filled gusts cocooned about the little girl, lifting her upright, from the ground. Soon, she hovered three, four, then five feet above the ground, her moving hands fluttering like her blond strands.
“Told you, Bro, she can harness the wind and fly.” On the outer edge of the mob, a young man, no doubt the older brother, stood beside Brody Thackett. Their faces appeared bruised, with the brother’s nose busted and Brody’s lower lip split. Both stood hemmed in with their hands tied behind their backs.
Ignoring Ross, Nora said, “The militia does not seem to treat its members well.”
“EMF blaster took out all electronics within half a mile.” Brody tipped his forehead toward the vehicle. “Good thing you were out of range.”
One of the men rammed the butt of a torch handle into Brody’s stomach.
How dare they mistreat one of Nora’s own.
“Now.” She lunged. Shoving Yates aside, with her gloved hand, she grabbed the front of Delbert’s button-up, leaf-camo shirt. “You played the fool for Yates. I intend to end this foolishness.”
“Ma’am,” said Delbert, his tone shooting into a falsetto shrill. “I only did what I was told to do.”
In quick steps, Yates and Doc Halverson skirted back three yards or so. Nora let go, grinned at Yates and Doc, and grasped Delbert’s throat.
“Argh.” Delbert’s eyeballs rolled back into his head. The heady scent of death tinged Nora’s nostrils as blood spurted from his nostrils, mouth, and ears.
She let the big man’s body, with its exploded heart, pile on top of the leaves.
Turning back toward the ATV, she faced Ross. “Traitor.”
“Nora, please.” The wind, spurred by the girl’s power, tousled the soldier’s short hair. “Don’t do this. I started out working under orders, but that’s not how it ended. In a short time, as I got to know you, I came to truly care for you.”
“And you’re a dead man because I began to care for you.” She strode forward to cup his jaw. A tender brush across his cheek scrubbed his beard growth.
Ross gasped. In a mere second, his eyes lost focus. His face went slack. When his heart burst, blood gushed from his nose and ears.
As Hannah and Darcy Lynn screamed, Nora released the body and let it thump to the forest floor. Her own heart beat thudded hollow, empty. Oddly, revenge held a white-bread toast flavor. She turned to face the mob. “Yates, you’re next.”
Yelling, cowardly men and women fled from the militia, stomping crunching leaves under pounding boot soles. Only Yates, the doctor, and a few of the other camo-clad men stood their ground and aimed guns at Nora’s little group.
“Evil spawns evil, does it not?” Vincent studied the man who was his father.
The power and thrill of her kills coursed through Nora’s veins. Although she had not been born this way, this was who and what she was. A shock of insight gripped her chest. “Yes, Vincent, I suppose it does.”
Chapter 27
Ross, the head soldier, lay dead at Junior’s feet. The other guy was a bloody lump and lay on the ground a couple of yards away. Bright spring green tree canopies covered the bodies like a graveyard funeral tent, while ruglike, hairy moss pushed through winter browns to serve as a final resting place.
Darcy Lynn, shaking her head, lowered to the ground. With the wind slowing around her, her eyes popped wide. She pointed, her arm and wrist shaking, pointed and gulped a wheeze. “Red,” she yelled, shrill and long. “Red. Red.”
“Nora no longer has a shock box.” Hannah quirked one side of her mouth.
Even though Vincent clutched a pencil and paper, he stared at the Yates man that claimed to be his father as if the teen held a handful of salt and stood over a slimy snail.
Junior curled his toes into the loose slope. Aunt Pearl was bad, but having Nora and the Yates guy as parents...
That’s really bad.
“Looks like they hold most of the cards. No use in anyone else getting hurt.” Yates grinned like a fox in a hen house.
The doctor man smacked his palms together. He nodded to the group. His lips pulled into a closed mouth sneaky weasel smile. He waved a hand for his men to bring Brody and another fellow forward. “All my triumphs together at last.”
“Brody and his brother?” asked Nora.
“Not as powerful or unique as the six of you,” the doctor man said, “but enhanced, nevertheless .”
“Enhanced?” Brody shook his head and shrugged.
“Nothing appears as it seems,” Brody’s brother muttered. “What seems to be so, does not always appear.”
“Cantrell sees beyond the veil of this life.” The doctor patted Brody’s older brother on the shoulder. “This fine fellow grasps things that come into play that most of us are unable to fathom.”
Junior grunted. No wonder Brody fit in so well with him and the other kids.
“What the hell are you talking about?” Brody blinked like he’d walked out of spending three days locked in a cellar.
“Brody has a knack with software and gadgetry that we intend to foster.” The old man beamed proudly. “Who knows, one of his designs may someday assist us in taking over the world.”
“You want to be the boss of everyone?” Beneath Junior’s feet, energy flowed.