by Eden Maguire
Brandon gave six jabs for every word in the last sentence then he stood up and opened the door. 'You don't talk to me, to Zak, to any of us ever again!'
He stepped over the threshold. Bang! The door slammed behind him.
So, Phoenix, your brother won 't help me to find your kil er. And where were you, out at the trailer park? What's your new overlord's take on this?
Does he know the cops got Hal and Black? Is he pleased? Does anyone even care?
I was dazed as I got in Laura's car and drove to the gas station, doing things on automatic pilot, only knowing that I was alone and time was racing on. Why the gas station? Kyra was the reason - her name popped into my head with two unanswered question: how wel did she know Brandon Rohr, antp3 why hadn't she disclosed their friendship during our earlier conversation?
Luckily or unluckily she was working a shift behind the cash register when I arrived. This time she was busy filing her nails.
'I came to tel you Brandon's OK,' I began. I knew you'd be worried.'
Kyra gave a lip-gloss pout. 'Brandon's a big boy.'
'He saved Zak's life.'
Surely this would drag her attention away from her manicure. But no -
sst-sst-sst went the emery board.
'Oscar Thorne set fire to the trailer. Brandon ran right in and carried his brother out.'
'Quite the hero.' She perched on the edge of her seat, legs crossed, poured into her shiny leather pants.
'You didn't tel me you two knew each other,' I reminded her. The time she talked to me, she'd left out Brandon's name until I'd brought it in.
'What's not to notice?' she'd asked, like she admired him from a distance. Only at that point had she remembered that Nathan ran at Brandon with a piece of heavy pipe and knocked him to the ground.
Kyra flicked the emery board across her nail one last time. She pressed a button to activate one of the gas pumps out in the forecourt, watched as the customer fil ed his tank.
'What happened after Nathan hit Brandon?' I asked. 'After Brandon hit the deck?'
'It was a year ago,' she sighed. 'You think I can remember every detail?' 'You could try!' I said, leaning over the desk and letting my feelings show.
Kyra was my last shot at getting the necessary information. After this I hit an unclimbable brick wal . 'Why would you not want to help me?'
'Because look what just happened to Zak,' she said, right in my face so that I saw every individual, curled mascara-lash. She was staring at me, perhaps with a hidden warning that I wasn't able to read. 'You want me to end up as toast?'
I stared her out. 'Back to the day it happened. Brandon's on the ground, Nathan's standing over him. Black, Hal , Oscar Thorne - they al arrive o1f the scene. Who pul s the first knife?'
There seemed to be a long pause and I never did get an answer because, at this exact moment, Oscar and Nathan Thorne burst out of the storeroom
behind Kyra's desk.
And again at that precise second, between the shelves of potato chips and Snickers bars, Phoenix, Iceman and Dean suddenly appeared.
The Beautiful Dead got me out of there before the Thornes could rush past Kyra and grab me. In broad daylight, in front of witnesses they cast the shimmering light and vanished me, took me out to Foxton in the blink of an eye.
'People saw you!' I gasped. I was in the ranch house with Iceman, coming to terms with the fact that they'd surrounded me with that magic glow and transported me through space. For this, don't think kerpow supersonic speed - think floating, spinning, hazy freefal . One second I was eyebal ing Oscar and Nathan at the gas station, the next I was sitting in the rocking-chair at the ranch - and what happened in between I didn't real y get. 'You're not al owed to let far-siders know you exist!' I stressed.
Iceman nodded. 'That's how come Dean and Phoenix had to stay behind
to deal with them,' he explained quietly.
'They'l do the memory zap thing on the Thornes and Kyra?'
'Yeah and those guys wil wake up with sore heads and no clear idea of what just happened. So for them, what's new?'
I raised my eyebrows at Iceman's warped sense of humour. 'This is so not funny!'
'I agree - it's serious. That's why Dean decided we should step in. After yesterday at Forest Lake and today at the trailer park he couldn't risk those guys getting hold of you again.'
'Your overlord has been monitoring my progress?' I queried, sounding calm and trying to stamp down my inner turmoil.
'Or lack of it.' Iceman didn't pretty things up - he told it like it was.
'You know, I'm starting to see things Phoenix's way. I figure there was total chaos there the night he was kil ed - too many guys, too many weapon1a5 The cops have tried and failed, so what real hope do you have of finding his kil er?'
'And Dean - does he see it that way too?' This was the big question which everything else hung on.
Iceman heard noises outside and went to the window. 'Ask him yourself,' he told me, pointing to two figures striding across the yard.
Dean was the first to enter. He flung open the door and looked at me long and hard with that stony overlord gaze. Phoenix stood behind him in the porch.
'Don't listen to Phoenix and Iceman,' I began, springing from the chair and running towards Dean. 'This is our last day. Give me one more chance!'
Dean's gaze intensified and stopped me in my tracks. Then he glanced over his shoulder, stood to one side and let Phoenix come into the kitchen.
'Take al the time you need,' he told him, like a doctor who has just
delivered a kil er diagnosis and who recognizes that the patient might need help to adjust.
Phoenix took me by the hand and led me out of the house, across the yard and through the meadow where the green grass grew tal and the scarlet poppy petals drooped and dropped. A fresh breeze blew down from the aspen ridge.
'Why does this feel like giving in?' I whispered, my heart fil ing with dread.
'Listen to me,' he murmured, keeping hold of my hand and walking on. 'I wil not let this happen. I wil not let you get kil ed.'
'Don't think about me!' I begged. 'Think about you. Today is al you
have!' Al we have!
Phoenix's grip strengthened. His fingers were laced through mine - his were ice cold, mine were warm. 'We can't trust the cops to arrest the Thornes,' he insisted.
'Yes, you can. Kors is good at his job. He'l track them down.' 'Not soon enough.'
On we went, out of the meadow, across the thorn scrub and flat slabs of
glittering pink rock, up the hil towards the water tower.
'I've told Dean this is it, we're out of here,' Phoenix murmured in tht46 shadow of the tower. 'It's my choice and it's a straight one - your life or mine. It's a no-brainer.'
I made him turn and look right at me, deep into my eyes. 'I did this three times before - for Jonas, Arizona and Summer. I can do it again.'
He'd cut himself off from me and made up his mind. 'No, Darina, you can't. This time it's Oscar Thorne we're dealing with.'
'This time it's you,' I countered.
He looked at me so long, so deep that I thought the silence would go on for ever. We were stil in the shadow of the tower, beneath the canopy of bright-green aspen leaves, with the sweep of the mountains behind us, the blue sky above.
Phoenix, my Phoenix, I won't stop now. I'l never give in.
'I don't want you to grieve for me,' he said softly as the breeze blew his hair from his face, revealing the angle of his cheekbones and jawline, the curve of his eyebrows, the depth of those blue-grey eyes.
As long as I breathe 171 grieve for you. You 're in my head, my heart -
you always wil be. How can I kil the memories? Why would I want to?
'But don't be sad. Be happy.'
Al I want is more time with you.
We walked on hand in hand towards Angel Rock. 'We'l have more time together but it'l be different,' Phoenix said.
'How different?' The word scared me. I want it
to be the same.
We stopped and he turned towards me. You believe in the soul? I don't mean any special religion just the idea of a spirit.'
I think I do.
An energy, a life force and we're al part of it. It's where we come from and where we go to.'
Turning again and walking me towards Angel Rock, he held my hand so firm, looked so deep into my innermost thoughts, that I said out loud,
'Yes,
I believe that.'
11 ' m part of that energy and so are you. That's how I get to be there with you next week when you're back in school, next year when you go to col ege, when you party and dance I'l be there.' 147
I believe you.
'I'l be there when you meet the right guy and raise your kids. And whatever I said in the past, I promise I won't be jealous - I'l be happy for you.
... I understand. My heart was squeezed, I could hardly breathe. 'At al your life events I wil be by your side.'
Now my heart was aching, bursting, breaking. I held on to his cold, cold
hand.
'I wil watch you grow old,' he promised.
'I know one thing for sure,' Dean announced. It was late afternoon, the
shadows in the yard were long and deep. 'We have a situation with the
Thorne brothers that makes it too dangerous to send Darina back.
'So we quit,' Phoenix insisted. 'How many times do I need to say it?' I shook my head. 'I won't. I can't.'
Dean turned to Phoenix to explain my point of view. 'You see what Darina's saying? If she quits now, that's it for her - she won't be able to move on with her life. What kind of future does she have, knowing that she failed in the most important task she ever had?'
'Thanks,' I sighed. 'Make him understand, tel him we don't have time to talk we need to move on.'
Deep in thought, Dean led the way into the barn, where Iceman sat quietly on the steps leading to the hayloft. He was resting, recharging his powers, waiting for the overlord's decision.
'Go sit, Darina,' Dean told me, and I went to the steps and sat down next to Iceman. Somehow, his quiet presence and the big dark space soothed me,
like being next to a priest in an empty church.
Dean stood with Phoenix near the door. 'My decision is that we go on,' he told him calmly. 'But Darina stays here with us.'
I took a breath, deep and slow. We go on!
Phoenix gazed at me across the floor of the barn. I love you, Darina. I wil not let you die.
'I know this looks like chaos,' Dean went on. 'But we need to establish some logic, some pattern. What happened before the fight at the gas statioi 1148 What key facts are we missing here?'
I admired Dean's cop brain, at work on motives, moving towards opening a new line of inquiry. 'Like, why did Nathan hit Brandon?' I asked eagerly. 'What reason did he have?'
Dean nodded and turned to Phoenix. 'Was there something in the
background a key detail that we overlooked?'
'Nothing that I know.' Phoenix sounded defeated. 'My brother doesn't talk about stuff like that.'
'But he's part of the culture,' Dean pointed out. 'He hangs with guys who know the Thornes, he listens and picks up information.'
'Brandon isn't into drugs.' Phoenix came back with more force to defend his brother.
'That's what I figured. I'm not saying he was part of the deal. But focus on exactly that fact - Brandon isn't part of the Thornes' organization but he knows their lifestyle. Plus, he's a guy who can take care of himself you don't push Brandon Rohr around.'
'You're certain Brandon never shared any information with you about Oscar and Nathan Thorne?' I checked with Phoenix. 'Or about any of that gang Black or Hal ? Or what about the younger kids, Stafford and Mil er?'
'We didn't talk,' he insisted. 'That's the way it was.'
'So - Oscar Thorne has his El erton territory.' Dean moved us on. 'Believe me, I know - this is a specific area, with established boundaries.
Deals are done. Drugs mules link the international runners with the local chief. A lot of guys know how it works and who works it, but no one says they know or does anything to chal enge the system.'
'But maybe Brandon did,' I suggested. 'What if he saw his kid brother hanging out with Stafford and Mil er and knew that Zak was getting pul ed into some nasty stuff wouldn't he act on that?'
'Most guys would,' Iceman agreed, and we al looked at Phoenix for his reaction.
He stood silent for a while, his face pale and thoughtful while the bond of family loyalty took hold. 'You're guessing,' he said. You can never b 9
sure.
'Which is why we get to travel back in time,' Dean decided, standing between two narrow shafts of light in the gloomy barn. We take a look at a couple of things and establish a motive. We move on from there.'
I have wings and I'm spinning through a black tunnel. I don 't know which way is forward and which way is back. Gravity doesn't exist, only a pinprick of light which we move towards, which I glimpse then lose. A terrible force is dragging, twisting, propel ing me on.
Phoenix and Dean are with me, their white wings folded, helplessly turning, tumbling, whirling through space.
The speck of light grows to a disc. We fal and spin in pain towards it, the force tears at our limbs, our clothes and hair. We spiral on, the light expands, bril iant and blinding. I close my eyes and open my wings. The agony ends. We are there.
Angel-me stands invisible beside Dean and Phoenix in a huge, cold, empty warehouse with sleet rattling down on the metal roof There are no windows, no electric light, and for a while we see nothing.
We hear the muffled sound of a car engine pul up outside the building and cut out. A door opens and daylight floods in.
We're surrounded by hundreds of large, square objects covered in seethrough plastic wrapping, taped up ready for transportation. Beneath the wrapping I make out tables and chairs, beds and sofas. The big sticky labels on the outside read: The Wonderful World of Wood.
Oscar Thorne and Vince Hal lead the way between the unwieldy humps of packaged furniture that looks like lumbering prehistoric creatures towards a smal glass office in the corner. Nathan Thorne fol ows close
behind, cal ing to Jacob Mil er and Zak Rohr to keep up.
There 's no one here,' he assures them. The business went bust two weeks before Christmas. '
Jacob looks scared but excited, Zak just plain scared.
I glance sideways at Phoenix, see him take a step towards Zak before Dean reaches out a hand to stop him.
There 's not a thing you can do to change things, ' Dean says.
Zak shouldn 't be here, 'Phoenix mutters. He knows not to hang out with these people. '
Dean frowns, communicates a telepathic warning and makes Phoenix focus on the action.
I said, it's OK!' Nathan insists. He comes so close to us we could reach out and touch him, waiting right there for the others to catch up.
'What's with you guys?' he mutters. You know you don 't make my brother wait.'
Angel-me spreads my wings and rises into the air with Dean and Phoenix, who 's staring down at Zak, trying to read his state of mind. We go ahead to the glass office, where we see Oscar and Vince placing dozens of smal packages in rows on the desk. Vince begins to count and rearrange the packages, while Oscar looks out impatiently through the glass partition. Nathan and Jacob hurry towards the office, Zak hangs back.
Then we hear another engine approaching. This time it sounds like a motorbike. The screech of tyres tel s us that it has pul ed lip in a hurry.
Oscar hears it, leans over the desk and with his forearm sweeps the packages into a leather sports bag. Vince leaps up, breaks out of the office and begins to sprint down the aisle of furniture towards the door. Nathan, Jacob and Zak stay rooted to the spot.
I hover over the action with the Beautiful Dead.
Before Vince reaches the exit, Brandon appears, silhouetted against the light. Behind him is a curtain of sleet which slants towa
rds the ground and a mil ion tiny white bal s rebound.
Invisible Phoenix lets out a groan as his older brother shows up. He's desperate to step in again, is hurting big time because he knows he can
't.
Vince sees Brandon and hesitates. Back in the office, Oscar closes the zipper on the bag and comes out with it tight under his arm. Brandon strides towards Vince, who comes at him but Brandon lands the first punch, which sends him crashing into the furniture. Without saying a word, Brandon walks on, takes hold of Zak 's arm, turns him towards the door and starts 051 march him out of the building.
Twenty paces away, Nathan sets off after Brandon and Zak. He takes a shortcut, vaulting over tables, shoving chairs aside and overtaking the Rohrs before they have a chance to reach the door. Pul ing a knife from his pocket and setting himself across their path, he stands with his feet wide apart, eyes staring wildly.
Brandon says nothing, only looks irritated at the interruption. He glances over his shoulder at Oscar, who is pul ing Vince Hal free of the furniture, then at Mil er, suddenly looking like he wishes he wasn't there. 'Ttt.' Brandon makes a clicking noise with his tongue then gestures for Zak to step to one side. He stares at the knife in Nathan 's hand and sighs.
' You lay a finger on him and you're dead!' Oscar warns Brandon. The threat brings a frown to Brandon's face. Again he 's irritated.
Oscar's voice rises an octave. No shit you're dead!'
'Ttt.' Brandon lashes out at Nathan, sends the knife clattering to the ground and Nathan staggering back through the doorway where he skids on
the sleet-covered ground, loses his balance and lands hard.
Walk! ' Brandon orders Zak, shoving him through the door.
Zak also staggers, almost tripping over Nathan, who squirms on the ground.
Brandon picks up the weapon. As he strides past Nathan, he treads hard on the hand that grasped the knife. Then Brandon and Zak walk out of sight.
'I swear he's a dead man, ' Oscar mutters, hearing Nathan yel out and setting off after Brandon.
Hal hooks an arm around Oscar's waist to hold him back. 'Not now, 'he tel s him, tapping the bag containing the drugs to remind him of important business. 'Later. '
Oscar tries to break free. 'I'l get the kid too,' he promises his little brother, who has crawled on al -fours back into the warehouse.