As surprising as it was, though, I understood. I knew what it felt like, the need to lash out when someone you love is taken away. You'll settle for anyone when the one who took her isn't close at hand. In this case, isn't even known.
So part of me wanted to just let her run. Hell, part of me wanted to join her. But I knew that wasn't an option. She couldn't help me find Aggie and Owen's killer if she was locked up in jail. Plus which, it wasn't exactly a fair fight—mountain range versus mortal men. The men were bound to get hurt.
I started walking toward the corner. Laurel let loose a fierce cry, howling to the heavens, and grabbed a shovel off the wall. One of the many pieces of mining gear and memorabilia on display in The Tipple, which catered to local coal miners.
She spun around with the shovel just as Briar and the other two men were getting up again. She hit one of them, a burly redhead with a belly like a pitcher's mound, square in the hip, knocking him right back down.
Briar took two steps back out of range, and so did the dark-haired guy who was helping him—a slab of beef with arms and shoulders like city blocks. Looked like a serious weight lifter to me.
"Okay, Laurel." Briar kept his voice even and his arms hanging loose at his sides. "Let's relax and get this squared away."
"I don't want to relax!" Laurel hopped forward and swung the shovel in an arc, barely missing both men. "I want to hurt someone!"
"Mission accomplished, lady," said the dark-haired slab of beef. "What are you, some kind'a robot fighting machine or something?"
"You coal miners!" Laurel took another swing with the shovel. "Always tearing me apart! Gutting me, day after day! Digging out my heart and soul!"
"What the hell are you talkin' about?" said the slab of beef.
"I hate you!" Laurel hauled the shovel up and punched it into the floor, driving it through the cement with superhuman strength. Then, she snapped off the wooden handle and hurled it across the room, smashing one of the few unbroken windows. "I hate all of you!" Howling with righteous fury, she charged the slab of beef, knocking Briar out of the way with a flick of her finger.
In a heartbeat, she had the slab of beef doubled back over the bar. He grabbed her wrists and held her for all of ten seconds; then, she started throwing punches like the only thing wrapped around her wrists were a couple of flimsy ribbons.
Laurel kept whaling on him with a ferocity that surprised me. And worried me. Even with my ability to move rocks and dirt, I wondered if I could win in a fight with her.
"Damn miners!" Laurel pasted one blow after another across the slab of beef's face. "You've been killing me for centuries. Hollowing me out! Leaving nothing but an empty shell! All to satisfy your own greed."
The slab of beef thrashed, trying to throw her off balance. "You're nuts, lady! You need to go back on your meds!"
Suddenly, Briar popped up behind Laurel and threw a choke hold around her throat. She lunged back and head-butted him, but he didn't let go.
It was just enough of a distraction for the slab of beef to break away. Releasing his grip on Laurel's wrists, he bucked off the bar, threw a shoulder into her, and plowed his way free. He would've kept going, too, if Laurel hadn't torn off the corner of the bar and thrown it at him. The hunk of wood caught him smack between the shoulder blades, bringing him down hard on top of the pitcher's-mound-bellied redhead she'd knocked out earlier.
Reaching back, Laurel was just about to make a grab for Briar when a piece of gravel flew over and clocked her in the forehead. With an angry cry, she whipped around to see who'd thrown the stone.
Meaning me, of course.
"Gaia!" Laurel blinked fast, looking rattled. "What are you doing here?"
"Swung by to pick you up, Laurel." I stayed close to the front door, which I'd blocked open during the fight. If things went south, I had a clear path from a parking lot full of gravel direct to the Lady of the Alleghenies. "I need your help tracking the killer."
"I'm a little busy right now." Laurel reached back again for Briar, and I flicked another piece of gravel off her forehead. Just a love tap. "Hey!"
"Let's go back to the office, Laurel." I gestured for her to come with me. "Duke's zeroing in on the son of a bitch as we speak."
"Why bother?" Laurel laughed. "I'm dying, Gaia. Why not kick back and enjoy the ride instead?" With that, she swung back a foot and kicked Briar in the shin. He cried out but didn't let up on the choke hold.
I thought about what to say next and came up with nothing but dumbass platitudes. The kind of crap they trot out when you're standing on a ledge, about to jump. I know what you're going through. Don't give up hope. Let's get through this together. I figured it would do about as much good for her as it would for me if I were on the receiving end.
So I thought about how someone might get through to me. "You're right," I said. "This is bullshit."
Laurel scowled like she was trying to process what I was saying. Figure out my strategy.
As if there was one. "I'm just as pissed as you are." I kicked a chair, sending it crashing to the floor. "In fact, I think you've got the right idea." Reaching out with my mind, I pulled a stream of gravel through the open front door, held it in a halo around my head. "Fuck everything!" I let the gravel fly all at once, punching it into the wall behind Laurel like bullets.
"Go away!" said Laurel. "Both of you leave me the hell alone!" Her eyes rolled up into their sockets, and the ground started to shake. Mugs and glasses and bottles danced off shelves and shattered all around the bar.
"Screw you!" I summoned another stream of gravel and shot it straight into the widescreen TV, blowing it out in a shower of sparks.
"Gaia, stop it!" said Briar. "This isn't helping."
"Shut up, Sheriff!" Laurel let loose a shuddering roar of rage and pain and sorrow. The Tipple shook like a teacup in the hands of a shivering waiter. Timbers splintered and bowed toward the floor, threatening to come down on the unconscious miners.
I cried out, too, forgetting for the moment my reason for being there. Forgetting everything but the wordless cry in which all the pain and fear and confusion of the past days was bound up and cast out. My cry becoming a howl becoming a scream.
Gravel shot past me randomly, picked up and fired by the force of my feelings. I stumbled as the bar shook harder, ever harder, rocked by the waves of anguish radiating from Laurel. Dust from the ceiling fell around me like snow.
I was lost, completely lost, clawing my fingers through my hair. Tears pouring down my face. Gravel rattling past me.
Visions swirling in my mind. The blond man accusing me of betrayal. Guns firing. Blood spurting. Duke playing piano on stage, in a spotlight. Swords slashing through the air, through flesh, through hearts. Briar calling my name, begging me to stop.
What was reality? What was a dream? What was a memory? What mattered?
Suddenly, Briar's voice punched through stronger than ever. "Gaia, stop!" I felt his hands on my arms. Saw his hazel eyes staring back at me. "Snap out of it!" Looking down, I saw the red tiger's eye ring on his finger. The red tiger's eye stone I'd made for him, one of a kind in all the world.
The haze in my mind parted as I gazed at that stone. As the reality of my life sprouted around me like leaves in springtime. When all else failed, that simple stone brought me back, that gift I'd made for the man who was a friend and partner to me. The man who was turning out to be a better friend than I'd ever expected, standing by me in my darkest, most dangerous hours. Putting himself on the line to help me.
And getting hurt in the process. Even as I drifted out of my trance, Briar took a hit from behind and fell away from me. Leaving Laurel standing there, glowering, armed with a baseball bat.
It must have come from behind the bar. Roaring with rage, she swung it at me, clipping my shoulder. As I spun from the blow, I reached out for more gravel, sending a wave of it curling over her, washing her under.
But she didn't go down. She was swinging the bat even before the wave finished crashi
ng to the floor. I scrambled backward, tripping over a body, barely staying on my feet.
Laurel kept advancing, and the place kept shaking with stronger and stronger quakes. A piece of ceiling came down ten feet away, narrowly missing a pile of miners. I was surprised no one had been killed already, though I knew it was only a matter of time.
"That's enough!" I had to finish this. "Laurel, you have to stop!" I'd taken it too far, only made things worse, and now I had to end it.
I brought in another wave of rock just as Laurel was swinging the bat again. Hurled the gravel like a big stone fist against the wooden club, knocking it out of her grip, spinning it across the room and out a window.
Laurel howled and charged, pitching me back against the wall. I twisted and thrashed, breaking one hand free and grabbing her face. "Laurel, stop it!" She latched onto my wrist and tried to tear it away. I pushed off the wall and lunged forward, knocking her over a body to the floor.
The Tipple rocked more violently than ever. Another piece of ceiling crashed down inches away from us, distracting me. Laurel took advantage and hurled me off her, driving me like a piston into the wall.
I bit down against the flare of pain from my back and braced for the next attack. Laurel leaped from the floor and rushed me with both fists raised, howling.
She hit me like a freight train, like a bomb. Like a mountain. This was what it was like to fight a mountain range.
She pounded me with one blow after another. I knew I wasn't the one she really wanted to kill. I knew she might be just as happy if she died in a blaze of glory instead of waiting helplessly for the end she knew was coming.
But I wasn't about to let that happen. Just because she was a mountain range didn't mean she got to call the shots.
Blocking her blows as best I could, I summoned more gravel...and then I reached further. Found a bed of tennis-ball-sized river rock in a yard across the road, picked up every last piece and called it toward me. Looking further, I found something much bigger, something I normally would never have tried lifting. Though I'd always been able to move great weights a little at a time, in pieces, lifting massive objects all at once had been too much for me.
Until now. As I considered the huge object, wrapping my mind around it, I realized things had changed. Suddenly, I knew I could raise it up. Make it do my bidding.
So I did. With Laurel's blows raining down on me, I focused all my energy on the object, on drawing it toward me. Poured every bit of my willpower into making it move.
And then it did.
The bombardment started with the latest wave of gravel, blasting Laurel in the back...barely budging her. Then came the flurry of river rock, thudding into her like a fusillade of cannonballs; she shrugged that off, too.
But she didn't shrug off the grand finale. It was big enough to get her attention.
A thrill shot through me as it rushed near, soaring across the parking lot in the cool night air. I had never moved something so big before, something so heavy and solid. Maybe the power surge I'd experienced underground had stayed with me.
I guided it in, fine-tuning its flight. Picked the perfect spot for impact. Gave it a last tug.
Then, just before it hit, I grabbed Laurel's fists in mid-swing and held them. "Sorry about this," I said. "It's for your own good."
Shoving her away, I heaved myself backward, crashing through the wall and outside just as the object I'd summoned crashed through the wall on its way inside. I watched with amazement as we crossed paths—as I landed on the hood of a red pickup truck and the object burst into The Tipple.
The stone was ten feet long, shaped roughly like an arrowhead. It was five feet across and three feet deep at its thickest point. Must have weighed at least a ton. And it was flying through the wall like a paper airplane through a house of cards.
Talk about exhilarating. In the back of my mind, I started wondering what else I could do since the power surge.
As the stone sailed toward Laurel, I slowed it down. Flipped it on edge like a poker chip so the broad side of it faced her. At the last second, she pumped her own power into the stone, making it vibrate so hard, hairline cracks opened up all through it. Given another moment, she probably would have shattered the stone into fifty thousand pieces before it could touch her.
But she didn't have another moment. Propelled by the power of my mind, the stone lurched forward and swung around, catching her with its hard, blunt edge. The blow was strong enough to knock Laurel clear across the bar, where she collided with a wall and bounced to the floor.
When I didn't see her get back up right away, I breathed a huge sigh of relief. Pulled the big stone back out through the wall and lowered it to the ground.
Then, I lay back on the hood of the truck and shut my eyes. Made a mental note that the next time I faced a drunk and disorderly mountain range, I was going to use those dumbass platitudes after all.
*****
Chapter 27
I got exactly thirty seconds of peace and quiet till someone tapped me on the shoulder. Hard. "Nice work." It was Briar, and he sounded pissed. "Did I ask you to come out here and make things worse?"
I heard sirens in the distance and opened my eyes. Briar did not look happy.
"You need to get out of here." He helped me sit up. His movements were rough and urgent. "You and Laurel both."
I felt light-headed. Still up, still running on adrenaline, but due for a crash. "Are you okay, Briar? You got knocked around pretty good."
"Fine, I'm fine." Briar pulled me by the arm. "Now hurry. I need the two of you out of here now."
"Okay, okay." I swung my legs around and slid off the side of the hood. As soon as my feet hit the gravel, Briar was dragging me toward The Tipple's front door.
"Local fire companies and EMS are on the way," said Briar. "I'm going to try and sell this as a freak earthquake."
As we dodged around the boulder I'd single-handedly flown through the wall and back out again, I couldn't help smiling. "Good plan."
The sirens were getting closer as Briar hauled me through the front door. We worked our way across the wreckage, sidestepping bodies and debris. It did look like a natural disaster had swept through the place...and in a sense, that was exactly what had happened. What else could you call it when a mountain range came down on your sorry ass?
"I'm guessing this little dust-up registered on the Richter scale." Briar kicked a hunk of ceiling out of the way. Kicked it a little harder than he needed to, I thought. "Shouldn't be a problem convincing people it was a quake."
I looked at the unconscious miners as we weaved around them. "But they all saw her. They know what really happened."
"And it sounds better if they got knocked around by an earthquake than a couple of women." Briar let go of my arm so he could push aside a length of wooden beam that had fallen from the ceiling. "These hard-asses do not want to go there. But it's better if you two aren't here to rub their noses in it."
I couldn't argue with him. Better all around without the opportunities for awkward questions and possible payback. Better if the Lady of the Alleghenies remained an unsolved mystery, a legend these guys told among themselves huddled over shots after closing time.
Laurel was slumped on the floor against the bar, head between the metal legs of the single barstool that was miraculously still standing. Briar grabbed her ankles and slid her out, then turned her around. "This is a real mess, Gaia." He pressed his fingers to her throat, checking her pulse. Nodded and slipped his hands under her armpits, scooped her upper body from the floor. "I thought maybe you'd talk her down, not get her more fired up." Again with the pissed off tone.
Not that I could blame him for being angry. I was mad at myself, too. I knew I'd let the situation get out of control. "Sorry, Dale." I bent down and reached for Laurel's ankles.
But Briar didn't want my help this time. Before I could touch Laurel, he yanked her away from me, hoisting her up over his shoulder in a fireman's carry. "I'm the one who has to
deal with this mess now." He headed for the front door. "Get these guys to fall in line, lock in the quake theory...or whatever theory the owner's insurance is going to cover. Kiss some asses, grease some palms." He snapped out a frustrated snarl. "I hate this kind of stuff."
My head hung low as I followed him through the wreckage to the door. "You know I'll pay for this."
"That's not the point!" He swung around and looked at me, his face seething with emotion. So much emotion all at once, I felt burned by the heat of it, couldn't sort it all out. "I just don't know what's next, Gaia! What's going on with you?"
I wished I had an answer, more than he knew, but I didn't. And then the moment passed and he swung away from me. Marched outside with Laurel slung over his shoulder.
Out there, the sirens were louder and closer than ever. My heart pounded as I realized how close we were to having a major problem—namely, me and Laurel in the spotlight, powers and all. On the radar, overexposed, out of the freaks-of-nature closet. If we were still there when rescue crews and more law enforcement arrived, and some P.O.'d miner pointed the finger and opened his trap, our carefree days would be numbered. We'd never find out who'd killed Aggie and Owen.
With renewed urgency, I rushed ahead of Briar and opened the passenger side door of the Highlander. He lifted Laurel in and placed her gently on the seat, head lolling on the headrest. "It'll take me at least a day to get this sorted out," he said. "Maybe two."
I dashed around to the driver's side, threw open the door, and hopped in. Then reached over and hooked up Laurel's seat belt. "What can I do?"
"Wait for me," said Briar. "If you get a lead on the killer, do not leave town without me." With that, he chucked the passenger side door shut and stomped around to the driver's side.
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