This Magic Moment

by Susan Squires

  Luc loaded Thomas into a dusty SUV. The others scrambled into a pick-up, a jeep, and another SUV. Tammy hung back. Thomas lay over the back seat, his limbs in disarray. His eyes were closed. She wanted to be in the car with him.

  “I’ll get the doors,” Tris yelled. He stood to the side and gave them power. The only operational door slowly creaked open. The first car shot through the gap.

  The back wall of the garage blasted out behind them. Strangely, there was no noise. Just a blast that threw her up and over the car, knocking all the air from her lungs, and a cascade of bright orange, flecked with black specks.

  Then nothing.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

  ‡

  The jeep slammed forward into the half open doors. God damned power generator unit blew somewhere back there. Michael shook his head, ears ringing. “Everybody okay?” He thought he shouted it, but everything was silent. He turned. Something was running in his eyes. Probably blood. He wiped at it impatiently. Drew, beside him, had her seatbelt on, thank God. Senior and Brina looked okay in the back seat, if shaken.

  “Tammy.” He saw Drew’s mouth form the word as she turned to look behind them.

  Damn, damn, damn. This was where Drew’s visions started colliding with reality.

  Tris had staggered up. His muscles bulged as he slowly heaved the door open.

  Michael started to get out of the car, but Marrec was already out of his behind them and waved Michael forward. Marrec’s mouth said, “I’ll get her,” though Michael couldn’t hear him.

  Another explosion, farther away, rocked the jeep. This place was gonna come down between the lava and the explosions. Their jeep was first in line to get out the doors. Part of him just wanted to get Drew away from here. Part of him thought of that as a betrayal. But their jeep had to move or the others couldn’t get out, so he had to go. He wasn’t leaving Tammy behind, he told himself. If anybody could get her out of here, Marrec could. He saluted his agreement to Marrec and turned back to the wheel.

  Michael revved the engine, put it in gear and the jeep leaped forward, through the doors. In the rear view mirror he saw Marrec pick up Tammy’s limp body. Even from here he could see her head was bleeding. Please don’t be dead, girl. But the memory of Drew’s vision ate at him.

  Tris hopped in the back of the pick-up driven by Dev, with Kee riding shotgun. He could see a little Bronco behind that. Maggie was driving. Marrec’s SUV brought up the rear. Michael sure hoped everybody was present and accounted for somewhere in the four vehicles.

  Then they were racing over the dirt road in the dark desert night, no headlights, in case someone was watching. The Bronco was occasionally visible through the dust they were kicking up. Where was Marrec’s SUV? He headed toward the hill that formed one side of the next canyon over. If the compound was going to blow, better to have some dirt between it and them.

  The first lightning bolt hit the ground out to the left of them as the edge of the alluvial fan of scree at the bottom of the next canyon appeared. Michael swerved in surprise. Drew looked over at him. They all knew what the lightning meant. Rhiannon was still alive. There would be some weather to contend with. The next lightning bolt hit closer.

  Michael floored it around the hill and sprayed dirt. He slammed on the brakes as they reached cover. Jason pulled up behind him in a shower of dust and sand and jumped out, already at a dead run. Jason had acquired some kind of weapon along the way. He scrambled up the hill. Always get to high ground. Another lightning bolt ripped the sky.

  Michael turned to the jeep. “Gun,” he shouted. Senior was the one who got the idea and rummaged under the seat while Michael ran around to the back and flung open the door.

  Oh, yeah. That was good. M16s. He grabbed one and waved it at Senior. Senior motioned him up the hill. Michael was already on the run. She better be somewhere in the open. If she wasn’t, their other two vehicles were toast. It wasn’t like Rhiannon to miss. Probably caught in the explosion and a little woozy. He had no idea whether Marrec made it out with Tammy and Thomas. If they lagged behind, Rhiannon might have time to regain her control.

  “Stay where you are,” he yelled to Senior and the others.

  When Michael got to the top, Jason had thrown himself down flat on the ridge and was sighting his rifle. It was a Winchester Magnum M2010, a military grade sniper rifle.

  “You see her?” Michael threw himself down beside Jason.

  “Hard to miss her.”

  Michael must be getting his hearing back a little. He looked back at the compound. Rhiannon was standing in silhouette against an evil glow at the top of the compound, hurling lightning bolts like Zeus himself at the two remaining vehicles. Maggie’s Bronco was just approaching the ridge and cover. Marrec’s SUV brought up the rear, by quite a ways. Marrec was smart enough to be weaving wildly, trying to give her a harder target. A jagged flash hit right behind the SUV.

  “Take her out,” Michael said, finding his own bearings through the sight of the rifle. His M16 wasn’t built for this range. He hoped Jason knew how to operate a sniper rifle. God, it must be eighteen hundred yards back to the compound. What chance did Jason have at a shot like that? Jason licked his finger and held it up. Then he breathed in and out twice, ignoring the lightning that crashed below, and held his breath. Yeah. He knew how to use the weapon. Probably an ex-military merc like Marrec. But eighteen hundred yards? Only the best could make a shot like that. Jason exhaled and closed his finger on the trigger softly.

  The figure on top of the compound collapsed. Then Michael heard the report of the shot. A last lightning bolt careened wildly but damn it, it hit the back corner of Marrec’s SUV. The car jerked forward, but was still going. Probably didn’t have an electrical system anymore, but the metal exterior of the vehicle would have sent the electrical charge into the ground, almost like a Farraday cage as long as it wasn’t a direct hit. They’d be okay.

  “Good work,” he said to Jason.

  The man looked up and turned his hard, light eyes on Michael. “I’d been wanting to burn that bitch for years. She loved telling Morgan on me.”

  There was a grinding screech at the compound. Michael and Jason jerked around to see the high, rust-colored metal walls of the compound begin to…to melt, really. They started to collapse in on themselves. Bubbling lava welled up in the center like the hot spots in a sulfur bed. Hadn’t they closed the rift?

  Jason got to his feet and Michael followed. They watched as the glow of the lava lit the hellish scene below. The compound was like a melting candle. Metal peeled away from the canyon wall and fell into a burning maelstrom that whirled slowly where the compound had been. Rhiannon’s body was lost in the sea of lava. Michael wasn’t sure how long they watched the process, mesmerized. It seemed like forever. But soon there was only a pool of lava at the bottom of the canyon. In the dim light, they could see a raven circling above it, cawing plaintively. It was as though the entire compound had sunk into the ground. The top of the lava pool turned crusty black with only jagged orange cracks as it cooled in the desert air. The rift was closed after all. The lava wasn’t being replenished. The raven peeled off and headed west.

  Jason took a long breath. “So that’s it then.” He got to his feet.

  Michael felt dazed. He staggered up. The Bronco was nowhere in sight now. Marrec’s SUV was just approaching the hill.

  For Jason, this was it. He was free. Michael turned and stumbled down the hill after him. But for the Tremaines, there was more tragedy ahead, he was sure. Thomas had probably already bled out. It wasn’t looking good for Tammy either. If she wasn’t dead, then she was in for a life of dislocation and terrible loneliness, never able to love again unless lightning struck twice. He was one-in-a-million lucky to find Drew. Tammy was unlikely to ever find another mate.

  Either way, life was never going back to the way it had been before the Clan, before the Pentacle, before most of the Tremaines knew what tragedy really was.

  *

  Micha
el skittered down the canyon wall in a cloud of dust and a small landslide of sandy pebbles to where he and Jason had left the other vehicles. A scream cut the air as Maggie threw herself out of the driver’s seat of the Bronco. “Jane,” she said, by way of explanation. She went to the back door and jerked it open.

  Brina hurried over to the Bronco. She looked gray from all the effort she’d expended tonight. Duncan, the young Clan guy who had saved their bacon, and Lan and Greta, who’d been in Jason’s SUV, clustered in an anxious knot. Something was wrong with Duncan’s shoulder. Looked dislocated to Michael. And his arm was burned. Tris went to help Maggie as Kee and Dev got out of the pickup. Dev pulled the seat forward and came up with two big flashlights that had been stashed behind it.

  Brian looked to Jason and Michael. “Lightning in the forecast?”

  “Rhiannon’s dead,” Michael said. “Turns out Jason here is a sharpshooter. Took her out at eighteen hundred yards.”

  “Any others?” Brian asked, his voice low.

  “The compound melted into the earth. Kind of a reverse volcano,” Michael explained. “They’re playing ‘Journey to the Center of the Earth’ about now.”

  Kemble backed out of the car door Maggie held open with Jane in his arms. “Get me a blanket or something,” he barked. “And some more flashlights.” He staggered over to a flat area of sand in the shelter of a large rock outcropping. Maggie raced over with an old khaki wool blanket she got from the back of the Bronco. They spread it and Kemble laid Jane down gently. Dev set up his flashlights to bounce off the rocks. Tris took off his leather jacket and balled it up, then lifted Jane’s head onto his makeshift pillow. She contracted with another tortured scream. Michael knew jack about childbirth but those contractions seemed really close. Brina was on her way over to Jane when Brian took her arm.

  “Honey, I think you’re going to be needed elsewhere.” He nodded to Marrec’s SUV, just pulling up behind the others. “I’ll take care of Jane.”

  Brina’s worried gasp said it all as she hurried to meet them. Michael hoped to God Marrec had arrived with live cargo.

  “You?” Kemble asked, looking up at Brian, his puzzlement turning to anger. “What do you know about delivering babies? We need Mother.”

  “I thought I might have to deliver you,” Brian said, rolling up his sleeves, “since we were in up-country Thailand. So I read a book about it. See if there’s some water in these vehicles,” he ordered, knowing someone would jump to obey. “And some more flashlights for Brina.”

  “Should be emergency supplies in each,” Jason growled. He moved off deliberately.

  “Who’s got a knife?” Brian asked. Kemble went white. “For the umbilical cord,” Brian continued calmly. “Relax, son. You’re going to be a father.” He knelt beside Jane. “And you relax too, my dear. I know how to do this.”

  Jane smiled and visibly relaxed. “Of course you do.” Kemble looked surprised. Michael pulled up his pant leg, hauled out his Bowie knife from its calf holster and handed it to Brian.

  “Now, son, you take Jane’s hand. We’re going to concentrate on breathing, aren’t we, Jane? And when a contraction comes, you just squeeze his hand until he yelps. Let me just see how far you’re dilated.” He reached for a flashlight. “Can somebody get us another blanket, so Jane can have a bit of privacy?”

  Jane smiled again, but then her eyes got big and her brow creased.

  “Breathe, now,” Brian said. “In. Out.”

  Jane started to pant.

  Drew took Michael’s hand. “I need to know about Tammy,” she said in a low voice.

  Jane yelled. Kemble looked like he was the one in pain, his face screwed up in distress and worry.

  Michael tore himself away from Jane’s plight. Drew looked like she was going to face an executioner. She thought Tammy would be dead. She might be right. Michael squeezed her hand. “You want me to do this?”

  She shook her head. “Mother is going to need a daughter’s shoulder to cry on.” She pulled Michael toward the SUV, covered with dust and sporting a huge blackened gash in the rear quarter.

  Marrec was just opening the door to the back seat. He gathered Tammy into his arms. She was alarmingly pale, and there was a sizeable gash on her head that had soaked both her and Marrec in blood. Brina hurried forward. Drew went white as a sheet.

  “Scalp wounds bleed a lot,” Michael said. “Doesn’t mean she’s dead.” But he noted that Tammy’s leg hung at the wrong angle, and there was a trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. And now that he was closer he saw that her clothes were torn in a dozen places. Debris from the explosion had essentially became shrapnel. Not good.

  Marrec laid her on the bare ground and straightened her leg. He stood, looking down at her. His face was hard, a frown creasing his forehead, and his mouth a grim gash. “I will kill every one of them slowly,” he muttered.

  “No need,” Michael said. “They’re all dead.”

  “Good.”

  “I’ll get the…I’ll get Thomas,” Michael said. No use calling him a body in front of Brina. But the kid couldn’t be alive after Morgan had worked him over like that. Michael had seen the knife thrust into his belly, saw it turn. He started for the back of the SUV.

  “No. I’ll get him,” Marrec barked. He glanced at Michael and softened his tone. “He was in my charge.” Michael dug out a flashlight and a big container of water from the SUV instead.

  When he turned his light on Brina, she was already kneeling next to Tammy, touching her head gently.

  “Oh dear, a head wound,” she murmured. Her features were creased with doubt.

  Brina hadn’t been able to heal Brian’s head wound when Morgan struck him with the Wand. This must be her worst nightmare. Drew stood over her mother. But she wasn’t able to comfort Brina. She’d gotten that far away look again. Michael knelt beside Brina. “But this one wasn’t caused by a Talisman,” he said softly. “Just debris from an explosion. You can do this.” He wasn’t sure she could cure what was causing that trickle of blood. Brina hadn’t realized Tammy had internal injuries yet. She would. But he had to give her the confidence to try to heal her baby girl.

  Brina looked up to him, questions in her eyes.

  “Can’t she, Drew?” Michael turned to his wife. Drew took a sharp breath and raised her face to the sky. Tears were rolling down her face. Uh, oh. Visions.

  But when she turned to Michael and Brina, there was a tentative smile in her eyes, even if it didn’t reach her lips. “Yes. She can. I’ll see if I can find another blanket. Tammy will be cold.”

  Brina blinked, then got a determined look and restarted the examination of her child.

  Michael let out the breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding. Brina thought Drew had seen that Tammy was going to live. Maybe she had. He glanced to where Marrec laid Thomas out a few feet away. His naked body was covered in blood. There was a gash in his belly the likes of which Michael had seen before: slick tangles of intestines, the whole works.

  Poor Tammy. Living was better than dying. He hoped she saw it that way.

  Brina touched Tammy’s chest and began to frown. Here it comes.

  Brina looked up, fear in her eyes. “She’s really bad, Michael. Crushed ribs, pneumothorax. Debris has just shredded her inside.”

  “Brina, I was next to dead when you cured me. Way worse than Tammy.”

  Michael was vaguely aware of Marrec kneeling over Thomas, his hand at the kid’s throat. “He’s alive,” Marrec said. “Barely.”

  At that moment, Tammy gave a faint moan and opened her eyes. “Thomas?” she breathed. “Thomas?” She turned her head, and damn if the kid didn’t open his eyes as well. Was their pull on each other that strong? She was pulling him back from the brink of death. Tammy reached a hand toward him. Their gazes were locked together.

  Brina put her hands on Tammy and got that intense, far away look that said she was in Healing mode.

  “No, Mom,” Tammy whispered. “Thomas first.” Brin
a was elsewhere though. “Mom!” Tammy’s sharp tone broke through Brina’s trance. “Thomas first,” Tammy said, obviously clawing to stay conscious.

  “I’ll do him next, honey,” Brina said.

  “He needs you more than I do,” Tammy whispered.

  “But you’re my flesh and blood, my baby.” Brina’s face twisted with the dilemma. She glanced to Thomas then resolutely put her hands on Tammy. Michael remembered that when Brina healed you and you were as far gone as Tammy was, it was pretty damn painful. He wasn’t surprised when she began to shriek and writhe. He was surprised that her hand went out toward the kid. He glanced over. Tammy wasn’t shrieking in the pain of being healed. Thomas’s eyes were still open, still staring toward Tammy, but Thomas wasn’t there anymore. Michael was intimately acquainted with the blank stare of death. And the feeling of having your One, your Destiny, ripped from you.

  Brina was jerked out of her trance again by Tammy’s contortions.

  “No!” Tammy screamed. “No, no, no, no.”

  Brina glanced over to Thomas and saw death. Her choice had been made and it couldn’t be unmade. She set her mouth in a grim line. “Hold her, Michael. Luc, help him.”

  They held her down, poor thing, and Brina called on her healing powers. Did she have any strength left after all that had happened tonight? But she did, because her power hummed in the air. After the healing really got going, Tammy’s shrieking stopped. She quieted. Michael remembered the pain of healing severe damage giving way to something almost otherworldly calm. No one could resist that feeling of deep-down well-being Brina could give you. At last, Tammy seemed to lose consciousness. Michael and Marrec stood, both feeling awkward and useless in the face of Brina’s gift.

  Brina struggled to her feet, and Marrec and Michael instinctively each grabbed an arm to help her. Behind them, in the silence of Tammy’s new life and Thomas’s death, a new Tremaine baby cried.

  Michael glanced behind him. Dev and Lan were holding a blanket up to screen Jane from the crowd. There were, after all, seventeen of them out here in the desert to watch her give birth, and Jane was naturally shy. Well, sixteen, now.