“I’ll never hurt you again.”
“I don’t believe you.” Connor stared back, searching Ben’s face.
“I’ll never hurt you again.”
Connor sat up and looked away. “I thought I wasn’t enough for you.”
“You are and you always will be. I...did what I did to protect you, to keep you safe. I had to get you away from me.”
“And now you’re here to...I don’t understand any of this.”
Slowly, Ben raised his other hand with his fingers splayed and directed his power over the back of the couch. As Connor watched, he rewound Christopher and Dutch back into the room, pausing them in mid-walk at the entrance to the hallway.
Connor did a double take, dropping Ben’s hand. He scrambled back to the corner of the couch, tucking his knees up to his chest. “What...”
Ben lowered his hand, setting Christopher and Dutch free. Christopher shook his head and then looked at Ben. “I’m happy to be part of the demonstration, but we’ve got to get moving.”
Christopher led Dutch over to the recliner in the corner of the family room. “Sit. Stay.” Dutch sat down. “Good boy.” Christopher picked the straight razor up off of the coffee table and folded it closed, stashing it in his back jeans pocket. He turned on the TV and handed the remote to Dutch. “Don’t move until morning.” Dutch nodded and zoned out on the infomercial playing on the television.
Connor gawked and then looked from Christopher to Ben. “What are you?”
“We have...” Ben said, trying to come up with the easiest explanation.
Christopher butted in. “We have supernatural powers. We can rewind time, have visions of the future, see spirits.” He gestured at Dutch. “I’ve got the ability of mind control. Ben’s a bit of a weirdo, even for someone like us. He absorbs others’ powers for a short time.” Christopher scanned the room and then grabbed Connor’s hoodie from a hook on the wall and tossed it to him.
In a daze, Connor put the sweatshirt on.
“Look,” Christopher continued. “I know it’s a lot to take in. I can see that you need convincing, but we don’t have the luxury of time at the moment. There’s a vindictive old lady out there that’s been killing people like us and our triggers. You are Ben’s trigger and if you ever loved him, ever trusted him, dig deep and find those emotions again because we’ve got to get the hell out of here now.”
Ben stood up and offered Connor his hand.
Without hesitation Connor took it.
Chapter Twelve
“Bye, Dad. See you at two,” Melody said as she got out of the backseat of her dad’s car and moved to the front. Zellie had already climbed behind the wheel and was adjusting the rearview mirror.
“Bye, girls. Don’t forget to bring the potato salad.” He winked at Melody. “I think it’s my best batch yet.”
“We won’t forget,” Melody assured him. She shut her car door and watched her dad go into the church.
“So, where did you tell Dad we were going today? I can’t believe he let us borrow his car.”
Melody shrugged. “He’s so happy we’re both going to the picnic that I think he would have let us take the car to Portland.” She pulled two plain navy tank swimsuits from her bag and a tube of 55 SPF. “I just told him we wanted to go to the lake for a few hours and lay out.”
Zellie nodded and drove out of the church parking lot. “I wondered what the beach towels in the backseat were for.” She turned the corner, driving in the direction of the lake.
“He’s not so bad, you know. Dad wants to keep us safe. He worries about us.”
Zellie turned again, doubling back two streets away from the church, and headed toward the highway that led to Bend.
“I know that. I just wish he’d be more understanding about what it is we do. It’s not like we’re out getting into trouble. We’re saving people’s lives…most of the time.”
Their cell phone rang in Melody’s purse. She took it out. A photo of Aunt Hazel’s stern face popped up on the Caller I.D. with an expression that said, “I will not tolerate being sent to voicemail.”
“It’s Aunt Hazel. I have to answer it.”
“Crap,” Zellie swore.
“Hey, Aunt Hazel,” Melody answered.
“Melody. It’s good to hear your voice.”
“Yours too.”
“I’ll cut to the chase, things are going south on our end of the operation.”
“You’re not having any luck finding Retros?” Zellie grabbed Melody’s forearm to get her attention and pointed to the phone. Melody nodded.
“No dear, we’re finding them, but in the last day or so they’ve all been dead by the time we’ve reached them.”
“What? Hold on, I’m putting you on speaker.” She rested the phone on her knee and pressed the speakerphone button.
“Can both of you hear me?”
“Yes,” Melody said. “What’s this about dead Retros?”
“Mildred has people working for her, other Retroacts or spirits, and they’re getting to the kids before we do and killing them and their triggers.”
“Oh my God,” the sisters said in unison.
“Yes. We’ve suspended our recruiting efforts. This is bigger than we’d imagined. Mildred is out to destroy anyone not willing to follow her. I don’t think it’s a good idea for our group to be separated any longer.”
“Yeah, sure,” Melody said. She glanced at Zellie who was shaking her head “no.”
“My flight leaves in half an hour. I’m connecting in Portland and then taking a puddle jumper to Bend. I’ve already called your mom and she’s going to pick me up. The boys left very early this morning, so they should be there by this evening. I thought I’d give you a heads up.”
“Oh, good!” Zellie said, her voice higher and more cheerful than usual.
“How’s everything going there? Is Avery okay?” Aunt Hazel asked, not seeming to notice the tension on the other end of the call.
“Avery’s fine. I haven’t felt like there is any threat against him. Uh, as for everything else? Same old, same old. Have a vision, make a plan, rewind some peeps,” Zellie lied.
“We did have a little problem yesterday,” Melody confessed. “This guy I know, a busboy named Daniel at the See-Saw, witnessed Zellie rewinding.”
Aunt Hazel mm-hmmed. “Well, that’s never a good thing, but it does happen. Are you certain he remembers what he saw?”
“No,” Zellie said. “I was able to catch him in a rewind later and I’m pretty sure he doesn’t know what happened.”
“All right, but just to be sure, have Christopher talk to him when he gets there.”
“Sure thing.” Melody said. She’d been spazzing out for no reason. Of course that was before she knew that Christopher was coming back to Oregon. Yay. Something new to spaz about. “What did you do before we had a mind controller on our team? Y’know, in case this happens again, which it won’t, but in case it does.”
“You have to find out something about them that they don’t want made public and blackmail them right back. It’s most unfortunate.” She chuckled. “And sometimes a little bit fun.”
“Aunt Hazel!” Zellie teased. “How scandalous.”
“Don’t tell your mother I said that. Now, is there anything else we need to talk about?”
“No,” Melody said. “The Daniel thing was my big screw-up of the week.”
Aunt Hazel paused. “Melody, you’re really making me proud. I just couldn’t ask for a better protégé. Don’t get discouraged, dear; we’ll all be together again soon.”
“Thank you. That’s the nice-ˮ
“Listen girls, keep an eye on Avery until the rest of us get there. Heaven knows that boy is probably immortal by now, but we can’t take chances. If Mildred is building an army of spirits to use against us, we don’t need to be giving her any more ammunition. And I think we all know he would be the ultimate spirit to have in her arsenal.”
“I will. I won’t let you down,”
Melody said.
“You know I always need an excuse to spend more time with him,” Zellie said in her freaky, overly-cheerful high voice again.
“See you tomorrow.”
“Bye.”
“Bye.”
Melody ended the call.
“Crap,” Zellie said.
“My sentiments exactly.”
“This is all kinds of jacked up. The closer Ben and Aunt Hazel are to us, the more whoever is glimpsing them is going to take notice of what we’re up to.”
“Not to mention,” Melody added, “that Ben’s going to start sharing your visions with you the second he gets to Rosedell.”
“Double crap! I hadn’t even thought of that!” Zellie sped past the diner. “We have to keep them from coming here.”
Melody laughed. “Good luck with that. You’re the third most stubborn person I know. Guess who the other two are?”
Zellie shot her a look. “I can turn this car around, y’know.”
“Hey! C’mon. You know what I’m saying is true.” She put her hand on her sister’s arm. “I will figure something out. We have until this evening to come up with a plan. Maybe there’s a simple answer.”
“I would think the most logical thing to do is to strand them somewhere where they can’t follow you,” Raleigh said. He was sitting next to Melody on the steps of Roger’s front porch, wearing the white t-shirt and burgundy track shorts that the old man appeared to have a never-ending supply of. “On the mountain would be good. I wasn’t totally coherent for the whole trek Wes made in my body from there to the diner, but it seemed like a good distance. Something that most people would travel in a car.”
“That’s it!” Melody said, hugging Raleigh in a fit of enthusiasm.
“Watch my bandage,” he warned.
“Oops! Sorry!” Melody pulled away from him, noting that he wasn’t exactly in a rush to let the embrace go. Having a confidant is rad. Even if she had only half-confided in him in case any of Mildred’s people were trying to glimpse her. She’d told Raleigh that Zellie didn’t want Ben horning in on her visions anymore and had asked Melody to come up with a solution. Melody figured if she was being glimpsed, putting the story out there that there was dissension in the ranks couldn’t hurt.
“So, how would I go about stranding them on the mountain? I mean, I can get them up there, no problem, but then what? I just remove their spark plugs?”
Raleigh smiled. “Like in The Sound of Music? You a big fan?”
Melody snorted. “I’ve only seen it about a bazillion times!” Reel it in, Wells. “Uh, Zellie was obsessed with it when we were little.”
“Okay, but there’s no need to pull a nun and yank their spark plugs.”
“Oh.” Damn.
Raleigh put his hand to his mouth to hide his chuckle. “Just take their car keys.”
Melody thought this over. “Yeah, but they’re all kinda shifty. They could hotwire their car or hotwire and steal someone else’s.”
“Hardly anyone really knows how to hotwire a car.”
Melody arched her eyebrow at him. “Do you?”
He blushed and looked away from her. “Maybe.”
“Oo, mysterious.” She slugged him on the shoulder.
Raleigh turned and looked her in the eye. “I used to not be a very good person.”
Melody shrugged. “Me either.”
“Like, last summer.”
“Me either.” She laughed. “So, maybe it’s a good thing we didn’t know each other then.”
Raleigh was quiet for a moment. “Do you think my getting lost in the woods and then Wes taking over my body was God trying to punish me? To teach me a lesson?”
Melody didn’t hesitate. “If God is involved in this whole thing, he sent Wes to save you because you’re worth saving.”
“Thank you.” Raleigh rested his hand palm up on the step between them and Melody laid her hand on his.
“You’re welcome.”
This was the point where she never knew what to do. She could get here, to the deep thoughts/hand-holding stage and then…she always chickened out. She acted like she was confident around boys, but she literally knew nothing.
Raleigh cleared his throat. “I called my mom last night. She didn’t mention anything about my being on the run from the law or whatever, so I think we’re in the clear there.”
“That’s good. You won’t have to hide out here for too much longer, then. Did you tell her where you were?”
He squeezed her hand. “I wouldn’t do that to you. I got the feeling that I should keep my mouth shut. She thinks I’m going to go check out Crater Lake for a couple of days.”
“You’re awesome,” Melody said and then quickly looked down at her feet. And I am a gigantic goober. She needed to take a page from Raleigh’s book and learn when to keep her mouth shut.
“Melody…”
“Yes?” she asked, hoping that he wasn’t going to tell her what a great friend she was. But did friends hold hands? An image of Zellie and Claire holding hands and skipping down the hall like a couple of jackasses at school two years ago popped into her head.
“Melody, I’d really…” he curled his lips into his mouth and pressed them together, thinking. “I…” he sighed. “Do you think you could have your sister drive me to my car tomorrow? Roger says I should be good to go by then.” He looked away from her. “It’s still parked in the lot at the head of the trail.”
“Oh, sure. Yeah. I’ll ask her.” Melody tried to slide her hand from his, but he held tight.
“That’s totally not what I wanted to ask you.” Raleigh laughed nervously. He turned to her and brought his other hand up to her face. “I, uh, wanted to ask you if I could kiss you, but my lips are chappy and gross and we’ve only known each other a day and that seems ridiculous, but then again a lot of things in our lives are ridiculous, so…” He leaned in, licking his lips.
They aren’t that chapped. Okay, they are, but who the hell cares? Kiss me, kiss me, kiss me!!
The screen door creaked open behind them and they pulled away from each other. Melody whipped around to find Zellie and Roger standing there.
“Sorry for the interruption, boy and girl, but it’s time for my patient to rest and get another bag of saline into his body,” Roger said, stepping forward and offering Raleigh a hand up. “Don’t worry kid, I’ve got some lip balm that will do wonders. You’ll get another chance.”
“Yeah, we better get going, Mel.” Zellie gave her a remorseful look and mouthed “sorry.”
Melody stood up and pretended to brush dirt from the front of her shorts. So this was what mortification felt like? She was not a fan. “Okay. I’ll be in the car,” she said shortly. “See you tomorrow, Raleigh.”
“See you. It was nice talking to you.” Raleigh grabbed the edge of the screen door and followed Roger inside.
“Mel, I really am sorryˮ-
“Remember when I said that I was going to talk about it one time and one time only?” Melody put her bare feet up on the dashboard.
“Yup.”
“Okay then.” She took out her cell phone and dialed Claire.
“Yo,” Claire answered.
“How are the t-shirt sales going?”
“Ugh. It’s dumb. I’m just sitting here in the heat under a stupid tent and passing them out. I don’t even get to handle any monies. A child could do this job.”
“That’s why I’m here,” Avery interjected, taking the phone away from Claire. “Hey, honey.”
“It’s Melody, you dork, not Zellie.”
“Oops, sorry Mel. Honey retraction.”
“Anyways,” Melody drew out, “I do have an actual question for Claire.”
“I’ll give the phone back to her. See you guys at the picnic.”
Claire got back on the phone. “Yes?”
“The guys are coming into town tonight and-“
“Awesome! I’ve sure missed those dudes. Well, not Christopher, but Frank and Beans fer shu
re.”
“Yeah, me too. Like I was saying, they need a place to stay. Do you have any rooms at The Lodge?”
“Hmm. We’re all booked up, but I did get a suite for us all to stay in after the party tonight. I guess they could stay in the suite and we could bunk at the fortress of solitude, a.k.a. my house.”
“That’d be perfect. Thanks. I’ll text Ben and let him know.”
“Cool. Lemme talk to Zel for a second.”
“She’s driving.”
“Well, tell her to pull over. It’s of the highest import.”
Melody rolled her eyes. “Zellie, Claire needs to talk to you. Can you pull over?”
“Tell her I’ll just stop by and see her at The Lodge.”
“We’re coming to see you.”
“Sounds good. I’ll be the one passing out lame t-shirts to people in preppy clothing.” She ended the call.
Melody threw the phone on top of her bag and leaned her head back against the seat, hoping to get a little Raleigh play-by-play running through her mind.
“So, the boys can stay at The Lodge?” Zellie asked.
Melody fought the urge to growl at her sister. “Yes, and Raleigh helped me figure out a way to keep them stranded up there until at least tomorrow, which will buy me more time until I can come up with a long term plan. Did you find out if Roger told Aunt Hazel anything about Raleigh?”
“He didn’t. Apparently she’s not talking to him. When I asked if he’d heard from her lately he said that she was “miffed” at him for growing medical marijuana and refused to speak to him until he’d torched his crop.”
“Nice.” Melody giggled. “Is he going to torch it in the name of freaky geriatric love?”
“Oh, no. He said he was standing firm on this issue and that he had permits to grow and Hazie ought to let him win an argument once a decade.”
“Sounds like Roger’s a little miffed himself.”
“Sounds like.”
Melody stayed in the car while Zellie ran over to the t-shirt stand at the edge of the parking lot to talk to Claire and Avery. She watched as Zellie nodded to Claire and then gave Avery a kiss. Her sister was so comfortable with her friend and boyfriend, something she’d never felt herself even when she’d had a whole posse of friends. Well, they hadn’t really been friends, more like followers. People to laugh at her stupid jokes and tell her how pretty she was. What a bunch of bullshit.
Zellie Wells Trilogy Page 42