’Til the World Ends

by Julie Kagawa, Ann Aguirre, Karen Duvall

He shook his head. “There’s a honeycomb of aquifers running deep underground. I tapped into one to make it rain.” He pulled away from me, and the rain became a light drizzle.

  We’d proven to ourselves that Kinetics were stronger together than they were apart. A project for using the combined powers of Kinetics could be a powerful weapon. I wanted to find out more and wondered who we could contact. It obviously wouldn’t be Agent Nichol.

  “Look what we can do together, Ian,” I said, and hastily snatched hold of his hand again. The rain picked up, and he shook his fingers loose from mine. “We need to explore the extent of our power.”

  “And put you in danger of getting nabbed along with me? That’s not going to happen.” He twisted the throttle, and the bike jerked forward. He sped away down the street.

  Would he really leave town? I pressed my lips firmly together and squinted in the direction where he’d disappeared. No. He couldn’t. I wouldn’t let him. I had an idea that would turn the tables on Ian’s kidnapper, but it would have to wait until the next sun storm.

  Chapter Eight

  By the time I arrived back at the hospital, the sun had risen like a glowing orange slice on the horizon.

  “Dad?” I found him in his hospital room sitting cross-legged on the floor with my mother’s nightgown in his lap. He held it up to his face, his scarred fingers clutching the fabric as he nuzzled the folds while taking long, deep breaths.

  I bent to gently pull the nightie from him. “Come on, Dad. You need to take your medicine and your water ration before going to bed.”

  He gripped the garment more tightly, the skin beneath his dirty fingernails turning paper white. “In a minute, Sarah. I have to help your mother put on her nightgown. You know how hard it is for her to lift her arms.”

  Sighing, I nodded and let go. Ever since my mother had died, it comforted him to carry the gown around like a child’s security blanket. If it helped relax him long enough to sleep through the day, all the better.

  I reached down to clasp my hands around his thin upper arms and helped him to his feet. My father had once been a robust man, thickly muscled and youthfully handsome. He was only forty-six years old, but he looked more like sixty-six now. He wobbled on his feet when I finally had him standing. Smiling down at me from his six-foot height, he draped an arm over my shoulders. “You look so much like your mother. Did I ever tell you that?”

  “Yup.” I steered him toward the bed.

  “Her hair was golden, just like yours. Thick and shiny.” He frowned as he lightly touched my hair. “But not this short. She never cut it this short.”

  I nodded, remembering my mother’s beautiful hair.

  “Are stars out tonight?” he asked as he swallowed the pills I’d given him to help with his dementia.

  I nodded, not bothering to correct him that it was daytime. I wasn’t lying, either. There really was a star out, a great big one, and it was burning our planet alive.

  The hellish orb drew my attention to the window, and heat began to gather at my core. It spread, filling my veins with liquid sunshine. I was elated to receive the premonition as I fed on its power, my arms and legs shaking with it. The need grew in me, and I almost passed out from the pure pleasure of getting my fix.

  “Sarah?”

  Oh, God, I thought he’d fallen asleep. I spun around to face the wall, so he couldn’t see my face. My father had never seen me transition. I hadn’t wanted to scare him.

  “What’s happening to you?” he asked, voice shaking. “Why is there red smoke coming from your hands?”

  I curled my fingers and hugged my fists to my chest so that he couldn’t see them. “I’m fine, Dad,” I said, though it came out a raspy whisper. My throat was almost too hot for me to speak. “Really. Now go to sleep.”

  My legs like lead weights, I tried dragging my feet toward the door, but I could hardly move. A time stamp imprinted itself in my mind. Three hours. Then came the mental map. Destination: Black Hawk, Colorado.

  The bed creaked behind me.

  “Dad, get back into bed.” I tried again to leave the room, but my feet felt glued to the floor. “I told you I’m fine—”

  His bony fingers closed around my upper arms, and he screamed, then quickly let go. I spun around to see what was wrong. His terrified eyes stared at me as he continued to yell and back away toward the bed. His hands fanned out from his sides, and I saw that his fingers were an angry red. My skin had burned him.

  I tried to move forward just to see how bad it was, but he screamed even louder. He held his hands out in front of him as if to ward me off.

  “Demon!” He pointed at me. “You possessed my daughter!”

  I shook my head, and tears dripped from the corners of my eyes. I felt normal now, so I knew I must look normal, but it was too late. “I’m not a demon, I’m still your little girl.”

  “Will he be okay?” I asked the doctor who rushed into my father’s room.

  “He should be. I doubt he’ll even remember what happened.”

  He was right. With my dad’s mind slipping more and more each day, he seemed only to remember the distant past. His short-term memory was just about shot.

  The doctor’s brow crimped with concern. “Will you be okay?”

  I had to smile at that. I’d be more than okay as soon I arrived in Black Hawk a couple of hours from now. A storm was coming, and Ian and I were about to give Agent Sam Nichol a personal invitation for a front-row seat.

  * * *

  “I won’t do it.” Ian paced in front of the Storm Trooper, while tossing an empty can of coolant from one hand to the other. I’d asked one of the nurses to deliver him a message to meet me in the ambulance bay. After he refilled the reservoir for the air conditioner, I told him about my plan and was having trouble convincing him to go along with it. “I don’t want you anywhere near that son of a bitch.”

  “I won’t be,” I assured him. At least not too close and not for long. We just had to time it right. “I know when and where the sun storm is coming. Nichol doesn’t. I’ll use you as bait to get him out in the open and then we’ll trap the bastard so he has nowhere to run. See how he likes having his freedom taken away.”

  Ian’s lip curled, and he offered me that snarly smile of his, but he shook his head at the same time. “You underestimate the guy. He’s sly. Anyway, what will we do with him if we catch him?”

  “You mean when we catch him,” I said. “He’s a criminal. We tie him up and turn him in to the military base at Cheyenne Mountain. Let them deal with him.”

  “It’ll be his word against ours. Who do you think the government is going to believe?”

  He had a point, but I had a counter one. “Okay, fine. We’ll turn ourselves in along with Nichol. That’s his assignment, right? To round up all the Kinetics? This way we’ll be under the government’s protection. Without access to you, Nichol’s profiteering days are over.” And, ironically enough, the agent would look like a hero for bringing us in. The guy should rot in hell for what he’d done, but if Ian and I could be protected from him and others like him, that’s what mattered.

  A dark look settled over Ian’s face. His pensive stare at the SUV made me wonder what he was thinking. “Your plan could work,” he finally said.

  A flutter of anticipation rippled up the back of my neck. The next step was contacting Nichol. “He has a satellite phone in his vehicle, right? Do you remember the number?”

  “I’ll never forget it.”

  Of course the agent would have a satphone. The only people with satellite phones were government, law enforcement, fire stations and hospitals. The rest of us had to use couriers and an extremely slow mail system. The days of cell phones and email were over, at least until more communication satellites came back on line.

  We no longer had a mayor in Lodgepole, but because I’d managed to save the town from the sparks of numerous sun storms, I’d earned the proverbial key to the city, and it came with privileges. One of those privileges was u
se of the hospital’s satphone. I’d never needed it before now, but I knew where it was.

  “Meet me on the roof,” I told Ian, and went to retrieve the phone from the bottom desk drawer in the administration office. When I emerged on the rooftop, I noticed the sun was exceptionally brutal. There was a shady spot created by what was left of a plywood shack someone had constructed years ago. There’d be no rain today, but the shack at least provided shelter from the sun’s cruel rays. Ian was already standing beneath it, waiting for me.

  “You okay with this?” I asked, my stomach tightening with dread in case he wasn’t. He was a crucial component in this plan, and I knew it made him uncomfortable.

  “Of course I’m not okay with it.” His gruff tone made that obvious. “But I get it. It’s a smart move.”

  “And not without risk, but it’s our best chance of stopping this guy. Does he carry weapons?”

  “A Stunner that shoots extremely effective electric bullets.” Ian rubbed his chest as if recalling just how effective. “He could use it to kill if he wanted to, but I was worth more to him alive.”

  I opened the case and pulled out the satphone. “What’s the number?”

  “What if he’s not there?” Ian asked, trying to sound as if he didn’t care one way or the other. But I knew better. “The storm will strike in less than two hours.”

  “Then we wait until the next storm and try again.” It was even possible his location put him too far away from Black Hawk to make it there in time. “How fast is his vehicle?”

  Ian snorted. “Damn fast for a solar-powered car, and he drives at top speed. It’s not like he has to worry about getting a speeding ticket.”

  He gave me Nichol’s sat number, and I punched it in. My pulse quickened as my anxiety mounted with each ring. I breathed deeply, concentrating on the speech I’d rehearsed inside my head. If the agent answered, I had to be convincing, and I wasn’t terribly confident of my acting skills.

  “Yeah,” said a tenor voice on the other end.

  I nodded at Ian, who stiffened and began to pace in a circle, his dark eyes filled with malice.

  When I didn’t respond right away, Nichol said, “Who the hell is this?”

  I swallowed hard. “A friend.”

  He paused. “Wrong number. I ain’t got no friends.”

  “You do now. Especially when you hear what I have to say.”

  “And what’s that?”

  “Two words. Ian. Matthews.”

  The pause drew out too long, and I thought we’d been disconnected. Finally, he said, “Don’t try to bullshit a bullshitter.”

  “It’s not bullshit, Agent Nichol. I have him right here.”

  “Where’s here?”

  I let a smile seep into my voice. “I’m not stupid enough to answer that. You’re not welcome where I am, and you don’t need to know.”

  “What do you want for him?”

  “A partnership. You and me. Fifty-fifty.” He seemed the type who liked being the one on top in a relationship.

  He laughed, long and hard. “The hell you say. Look here, missy, I’m a busy man. I don’t have time for idiots. Good luck with your business dealings.”

  “Wait!” He was supposed to jump at the opportunity I offered. What the hell had just happened? Ian frowned and mouthed what’s wrong? I shook my head and refocused on my conversation with Nichol. “Okay, fine. Just give me money. I’ll sell him to you.”

  Ian’s tortured expression tore at my heart. He knew I didn’t mean it, but hearing me say it couldn’t have been easy.

  “You know what he can do?” Nichol asked, a shrewd edge to his voice.

  “He told me.” What better way to lie than to use the truth? “We got friendly, if you know what I mean.” I gave Ian a sideways glance, and he looked appalled. I shrugged and kept talking. “Pillow talk can reveal all kinds of things. He told me all about you.”

  “That so?”

  “How do you think I got this number? Found it written down on a piece of paper stuffed in his duffel bag.”

  A growl rumbled through the phone. “You’re not as dumb as I thought.”

  “Damn right. I’m also a nurse. I drugged him, and he’s weak as a kitten, but not for long. Meet me at the Black Hawk statue off Highway 19 near Main Street in exactly one hour and forty-five minutes. Don’t be a minute late or the deal’s off.”

  Nichol hesitated. “That’s in the Rocky Mountain foothills.”

  Damn. What if he wasn’t in the state? I just assumed that since the military base with the Kinetics was in Colorado, he would be, too.

  “Lucky for you I’m in Fort Collins at the moment. I’ll be there.” He ended the call.

  “He bought it!” I wanted to rush to Ian and hug him, but one look at his stone-cold face told me that wasn’t a good idea. “Something wrong?”

  “I don’t get why you’re doing this. It’s not your problem.”

  “Because it’s worth doing.”

  His snarly smile was both beguiling and successful at hiding what he was thinking. It made him hard to read. “But you don’t trust me. So why help me?”

  He asked the hardest questions. “I’ve changed my mind. I do trust you.”

  His chin wrinkled when he jutted out his jaw. “Since when?”

  I jumped at the sudden hike in volume when he spoke. “Since last night. You were willing to sacrifice your freedom to protect me, and to save this town from a fire we had no way of putting out. I admire and trust a chivalrous man.”

  Eyes less hard than they were a minute ago, he asked, “Does that mean I’m forgiven for being a deceitful bastard?”

  I let a few seconds pass before I said, “Yeah.”

  He smiled.

  While smiling back, I tried to ignore the seed of doubt that wedged in my gut. I didn’t doubt him, I doubted myself. It was possible I was in way over my head.

  Chapter Nine

  The sun was high in the sky as it approached noon. Cool air poured from the Trooper’s vents, and I angled my head to bathe my neck in pure refreshment.

  “Keep your eyes on the road,” Ian said. “Or would you rather I drive?”

  Actually, I would. For one thing, it would prove that I trusted him. For another, I was so tired, my eyelids felt weighted with bags of sand. I hadn’t slept today. “The only reason I’m not handing you the reins is because I know where we’re going and you don’t.”

  He harrumphed. “Have it your way, but I’m a great driver.”

  “I’m sure you are.” I glanced at his bouncing knee, an obvious sign of his anxiety. I wished I knew how to settle him down. Did I dare touch him? I let one hand fall from the wheel and reached over to pat his arm. I didn’t tell him not to worry. He had every right to do so. I just wanted him to know I had his back.

  He turned his head slightly to peer at me from the corner of his eye. Without speaking, his hand gently covered mine, his warmth seeping into me and making me feel safe rather than the other way around. Maybe it was mutual. At any rate, I didn’t experience the overwhelming charge between us that had happened before. Heightened emotions must trigger the surge. Good to know.

  The highway snaked through the foothills that had once been lush with majestic pine trees and myriad wildlife. Now it was a blackened thicket of destruction.

  I hadn’t been to Black Hawk since before the storms, so I remembered it as a popular mountain community with several gambling casinos and historical attractions like a steam locomotive and museums. Tourists used to love the old mining town where they could pan the creek for gold. But now there was no creek, and not much of a town to speak of. Just empty streets with gutted buildings and old signs that didn’t mean anything anymore.

  I searched for the sculpture of the giant black hawk where I’d told Nichol to meet us, but it was no longer there. I stopped on the bridge connecting the highway to the road leading into town. “I wonder what happened to it,” I said.

  Ian got out of the SUV and peered over the raili
ng. Turning to look at me, he said, “It flew off its perch.” He pointed down at the dry creek bed. “It’s down there.”

  Flown? More like hurled. Seeing the gaping cracks in the pavement, I guessed one or more earthquakes had sent the fourteen-foot iron hawk over the edge. The location where we had agreed to meet remained the same, so even without a hawk, Nichol would have no trouble finding us.

  I parked the Trooper and gathered the few props we’d need to put on our show. Ian had found a comfortable spot to pose for our ruse in the shade of a demolished building. He’d put himself far enough from the road that Nichol would have to walk a hundred feet or more from wherever he parked. That would draw him out into the open.

  We’d arrived early so that we could set up. I unwound a length of rope and began tying Ian’s ankles.

  “Do you have to?” he asked, sounding annoyed, and I didn’t blame him.

  “Yes, but I’ll keep it loose. You can easily kick free.” The plan was for Nichol to think Ian was incapacitated; an easy capture. When the storm started, he’d panic and agree to anything we asked if we promised to save him from exposure. Ian would trap him in a cyclone until the sparks passed, then we’d tie him up and take him with us to the base in Cheyenne Mountain. I’d threaten to throw him under the sparks of the next storm if he gave us any trouble.

  I wrapped duct tape around Ian’s wrists, but left a large gap that Nichol wouldn’t see. The bond was so flimsy a toddler could have broken free. Even so, I could tell the sweat beading on Ian’s forehead wasn’t just from the heat. “You can do this,” I told him.

  “Never said I couldn’t.” He glared up at me, then leaned his head back against the broken slab of concrete holding up what was left of the building.

  I’d grabbed a syringe from the hospital’s drug supply and planned to jab our captive with a strong sedative once we caught him. I was just filling it up when I spotted a black SUV. It was shiny with solar wafers that covered its hood, trunk and roof, and it rolled slowly over the bridge before stopping behind the Trooper.

  Every nerve in my body snapped to attention as adrenaline pumped through me faster than I could blink. Nichol finally emerged from the car and stood at the edge of the bridge wearing a slick black raincoat, a driver’s cap made from the same shiny material and glasses with moderately tinted lenses. “It’s so hard to find a good parking place these days.” Flashing a grin, he added, “Where’d you get the solar mobile?”