The family were eating breakfast together when she popped down the stairs. Seeing her parents around the kitchen counter with Dom and Ruby gave her a jolt. She dropped her gaze to the floor and made sure she gave them a wide berth as she made her way to the pantry in search of a granola bar. Shoving it in her back pocket, she pulled out her keys with the other hand and mumbled her intentions.
“Where?” Her mother’s question stopped her.
The sound of her sticky sweet voice seared Gemma’s insides.
“I don’t know! I just want to go for a ride.”
She didn’t wait for any further questions or arguments and forced her legs to keep moving towards the garage when she heard her father’s smug voice.
“Well, looks like she’s on the mend. See Pen, I knew she’d get over him. Nothing to worry about.”
Her inner cauldron bubbled as she tore out of the driveway, but as the power of her bike whisked her down the highway she found her nerves begin to settle. Weaving in and out of traffic she cruised the sunny Florida roads all the way to Palm Bay. She stopped for a quick bite to eat before jumping back on her bike and reluctantly heading north.
The loneliness she had been riding away from caught up with her and wrapped itself around her body. The physical pain stole her concentration. She decided to pull off the main road and take a moment to gather herself before returning home. Slowing her bike down a side street, she drew to a stop just before she hit the sand. She pulled her helmet off with a sigh and leaned against her metal stallion. She wasn’t sure which beach she was up to along the coastline, but it was sparsely populated. She watched a few experienced surfers play with the waves ahead of her and noted the topless brown raisin turn onto her front for some tummy time. Gemma wrinkled her nose and looked towards the pier.
The old wooden structure jutted into the ocean like an arthritic finger. The weather beaten posts still stood strong and were covered with all manner of sea organisms. She sniffed the salty air. A smile fluttered over her lips, but it quickly disintegrated.
“Harrison,” she whispered. “I don’t know what to do. I feel weak without you. My entire future was based around us together and now you’re gone and I’m terrified. Everything feels so hopeless.”
Her recent habit of talking to her non-existent boyfriend brought both comfort and unrest. Every time she said his name he felt closer, but the silence that always followed just made his absence all the more painful.
She tried to throw off her futile feelings as she pushed herself away from the bike and headed towards the pier. Stopping in the soft sand, she removed her shoes and felt her toes begin to toast in the sun-drenched granules.
It was then the feeling struck her.
GO AWAY!
The fuzzy tingling spread through her digits and up towards her ankles.
I don’t want to go anywhere with you people! LEAVE ME ALONE!
As she stood in the sand, loathing her life, she fought the imminent departure.
You can’t keep doing this to me! After what you did, you just expect me to jump back in time and help you? Forget it!
Her mind resisted her departure with more power than she had ever exerted before. The tingling weakened. It was still moving up her body, but at a much slower pace. The surprise made her jerk and the tingling accelerated up to her hips. She fought it again. The tingling slowed as it wove through her stomach and tried to reach her ribs.
She had never experienced anything like it. Knowing she had no control, she had always just given into the feeling and rushed for cover. Now as she stood resisting it with every fibre of her being she could feel the battle of wills raging. She could picture her father on the other side; sweat beading his brow as he did whatever he could to bring his child across the line. The image made her laugh. The tingling spurted up to her shoulders.
I guess it’s a done deal now.
Traipsing with a huff towards the pier, she let herself vanish, but not the idea that with a little practice she might just be able to stay where she was.
* * * *
Mesa Vedre, Colorado – 1803 AD
Gemma appeared with a wince. Opening her eyes, the first thing she spotted was her irate father marching towards her. He looked tired yet feisty. Before she could utter a word, she felt her head whipping to the side as the result of his sharp palm on her cheek.
The sting of his fingerprints lingered on her flesh. She felt her eyes liquefy, but blinked to dry them.
“Don’t you ever fight me like that again, you understand me?”
Gemma turned back towards him. Raising stony eyes, she met his gaze and was surprised to feel no fear, just an utter lack of respect.
“You’re my daughter and you’ll do as I say. Don’t go forgetting that now.”
She felt her insides recoil as he placed a hand on her shoulder and gave it a light squeeze. He added a smile to the gesture, which made her face twist with disgust. He quickly dropped the charade.
“Now hurry up, you’ve already made us late!” He threw the order over his shoulder as he descended the rocky cliff face.
“No clothes?” Gemma’s hopes were dashed with a shake of her sister’s head. She couldn’t help spotting the slight look of wonder that twinkled in the back of Ruby’s eyes as she studied her. She was about to say she didn’t know how she did it either, but was cut off by a swift command from her father to get moving.
They descended a treacherous cliff, finding their footing in the small imprints made for them on the rock face.
“Hey I know this place,” Gemma murmured.
“Where?” Ruby whispered.
“Mesa Verde,” she called down. “It’s a National Park in Colorado… well, it will be anyway.”
Jumping from the last rock, she landed next to the remains of the 800-year-old city. The structure was like no other she had seen. An ancient city made from clay, its layers of housing creeping back into the depths of the large opening.
The silence in the rocky cave dwelling was a little eerie. Gemma had always wanted to come here, but she had been hoping her father would bring them along when it was inhabited. She would have loved to see the city buzzing with people going about their daily chores. She could picture the women on their knees grinding grain, the half naked children scuttling through the various openings in the walls and the old men sitting in the kivas. She bent down and ran her hand through the dust beneath her, wondering how many feet had trodden over the golden soil.
“This must be before it was discovered in 1888,” Gemma kept her quiet commentary going as Ruby shuffled up beside her.
“We’re looking for an arrow necklace.”
Alistair’s statement put Gemma on high alert as she stood tall.
“Another one?”
“Ruby!” Her father’s warning went unsaid, his sharp voice and glowering stare enough to stump any argument.
“I’m not arguing.” She raised her hands. “I’m just wondering why we’re looking for another one, that’s all.”
“Don’t feel the need to question everything I do,” he snapped, “but if you must know, these artifacts are very important and we can’t have them falling into the wrong hands. I’ve found a secure spot we can hide it. I’m due in Colorado next week and will make sure it gets put into the hands of the right archaeologist. I don’t want these numbskulls from 1888 digging it up and thinking it belongs with these people.”
Gemma felt the flakiness of his argument, but after the slap and his sharp response to Ruby, she didn’t feel game enough to fight him. She sullenly followed him through a narrow doorway and into the heart of the city. A silent grappling match began within her as she pitted her resistance to the task against her passion for history. She took in the tawny clay structure around her, awed by the human strength and ingenuity it must have taken to make this work.
Harrison, you would love this!
Her smile of wonder disintegrated. Picking through some earthenware she continued to search her designated area
while trying to keep the artifacts as untouched as possible.
This is going to take forever. Do you know how many people used to live in this cave, Dad?
“I found it!” Her mother’s voice rang with excitement.
Gemma stood from her spot, glad she could go back and at least put some clothes on. She followed her family back up the cliff and waited while her father traipsed through the forest to his new hiding spot. Her mother’s face glowed with triumph, Dom remained unreadable as he leaned against a tree and Ruby looked bored as she sat on the ground playing with her hair. Gemma studied the trio and the detachment she was feeling grew a little stronger.
Did she know them really? Dom was pretty unchangeable, but Ruby had been giving her the silent treatment only a few months ago. What’s to say she wouldn’t do it again? And then there were her parents. That was the biggest killer. Her parents. As she watched her mother wait with a smirk on her face she loathed herself for ever fighting with Harrison over this. The last time she’d seen him they had been arguing. They would never have a last time again and the thought of its ugliness was devastating.
As her body began to tear away, she tried to remember what they had even been fighting about. She wished she could somehow take it back and just do what Harrison had been asking, anything to change their fractious departure.
* * * *
Beverly Beach, Florida – 2011 AD
She rested her hand against the pillar of the pier as she grabbed her clothes. The salt water had reached her shirt and she pulled on the wet cotton with a frown. Wringing out the corner of her tank top, she pulled her phone out on autopilot and text a quick check in. She trudged up the beach to reclaim her shoes. Making her way out of the sand, she leaned on her bike and tied the laces, her mind awash with her final encounter with Harrison.
They had been fighting about Gabe. He had wanted her to see him and she had fought against her boyfriend for the sake of her family.
How ironic.
As she had been wasting her breath yelling at the guy she loved, they had been plotting his demise. Harrison had been right.
What else is new?
She rubbed her throbbing head and tried to shake off the tiredness that enveloped her. Knowing she wasn’t ready to ride yet, she flipped open the bag on the back of her bike and rummaged for some kind of sugar kick.
Her hand landed on a small, hard object and she pulled it out with a confused frown. She stared at the little flip phone in her palm, remembering the dark haired man who had placed it in her hands that day on the beach.
She wondered if it was some kind of sign. Too caught up in her despair, she had forgotten about the man who claimed he was her father. He had warned her bad things were coming. Is this what he had meant? Was Harrison trying to pass on the same message when she had dismissed him on the beach?
His voice filled her brain.
“I believe him.”
“I just think you should hear him out.”
“He only wants to talk, Gem.”
“I know this news hurts you, but you need to hear it.”
“I’m only trying to protect you.”
She ran her thumb over the plastic before catching it under her nail and flipping it open. A surge of desperation seared through her body as she highlighted the only number in the directory. She hit the green button and waited impatiently as it rang.
“Gabe here.”
“We need to talk.”
Chapter Nineteen
Beverly Beach, Florida – 2011 AD
Twenty-five minutes later Gemma could hear the rumble of a Harley engine pulling up behind her. She swiveled from her spot in the sand and watched Gabe leap off his bike and stride towards her. He oozed a calm confidence that she found both mesmerizing and off-putting. Standing from her spot, she brushed her shorts and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as he came to a stop in front of her.
“What happened? Where’s Harrison?” Gabe’s voice was soft.
“Um…” Instant tears lined her lashes. She brushed them aside and shoved her hands into the back pockets of her denim shorts. “He doesn’t exist anymore.”
She missed one tear and felt it slide off the end of her chin.
Gabe’s eyes swirled with compassion. She glanced up to meet them and realized for the first time she was looking at someone who actually understood. The revelation made the fog within her dissipate and all the emotion she had been ignoring was exposed… a raw tender wound that burned.
The tears she had not yet shed bubbled over like a waterfall. Her whole body convulsed with release. Her pitiful tears grew to stomach shaking sobs that worked up her body. She curled over on herself and let the anguish take her.
Without a word, Gabe wrapped her in a firm embrace.
Her first instinct was to pull away, but her body was shaking too badly. The arms around her reminded her of Harrison and so she clung.
Time vanished as Gabe shushed her and stroked her hair. She held on like a small child and drained her body of the excess sorrow that had been building over the weeks.
As her sobs ebbed to hiccupy breaths, Gabe rubbed her back and drew her body away so he could look at her.
“I need you to tell me exactly what happened. You think you can do that?”
Gemma’s head bobbed as she sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand. A large handkerchief was resting in her fingers a moment later and she used it to clean up her face.
“Here, sit down.”
She followed his instructions and found her words tumbling out in a jumbled explanation, starting with her fight with Harrison and ending with the black pit in hell her life had become.
“And there’s so much I don’t understand. Like why is all the stuff I had of his gone? The red baggy shirt he let me take home. I can’t find it anywhere, yet I know he gave it to me. I remember it so clearly.” She shook her head in frustration. “But history’s changed and I know that never happened now. I don’t get how it works.”
Gabe looked at the ocean as he spoke. “Practicing time spirits have dual memories. You remember life before and after the changes in history… just like I remember meeting with Harrison two weeks ago, but the waitress that served us breakfast will never know, because for her it never happened.”
Gemma’s cauldron bubbled as parts of her fragmented last words with Harrison jumbled in her mind. She wanted to ask what Gabe meant by “practicing time spirits” but she had more important things to deal with first.
“That’s why I called you. I need to know what you guys talked about that morning. He tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t let him,” her voice cracked.
Gabe squeezed her shoulder lightly. “Stop beating yourself up, kid. It won’t change anything.”
She shot him a glib smile.
“I’ll tell you everything, but I just need to get one thing clear first.”
“What?” Gemma’s skin prickled.
“Coyote Granger was only put in prison, right… not killed?”
She shot him an irritated frown. “Why does that matter?”
“It’s important.”
“Why?”
“Just answer the question.”
She could sense Gabe’s frustration mounting over her reticence, but she didn’t come here to talk about the day that nearly destroyed her. She came to get some answers!
Relenting to the fact she would probably get nowhere unless she gave into this small request, she let out a long sigh and answered, “We handed him over to the Sheriff. I don’t know what they planned to do with him. Probably let him fester in a cell for a couple days then hang him.”
Gabe’s head bobbed as he looked to the horizon. “So there might be a chance then,” he murmured.
“What do you mean?”
“To get your boy back.”
Gemma grabbed his arm. “What? How? Will… will you go back and change it?”
“No.” Gabe shook his head then looked at her with a smirk. “You will.”
Gemma felt her insides prickle. Her head screamed instant denial, but her heart knew better. If it hadn’t been for her fight against her father only that afternoon she may have been laughing in Gabe’s face right now, but her instincts told her she was capable.
“I don’t know how,” she finally whispered.
“I do.”
Gemma turned to face him, her heart beating wildly.
“You’d… you’d help me?”
Gabe’s face stretched with a smile. “Of course I will, but I need you to do something for me too.”
Her heart tripped out of rhythm.
“What?”
“I need you to tell me everything about your life, about your travel, about your… parents.”
Gemma could sense his struggle over the word. If he was right about her bloodline then she could understand why. Gazing up at his weathered face she tried to see herself in him. She studied his tanned complexion, his thick crop of hair and wondered if it could be true. Her brain fought off the concept. Penelope and Alistair Hart had been the only parents she had ever known. In spite of what they had done, a loyalty for them was still engrained. The man next to her was a complete stranger and if he really claimed to be who he was, why hadn’t he come and taken her back years ago!
She turned away with a scowl.
“In other words you want me to spy on them!”
“I just need to know what they’re up to.”
Black Blood (Time Spirit Trilogy, #2) Page 10