“I love you guys,” I whispered, knowing full well they’d all still hear me clear as day.
“We love you too,” TS said, his voice low and menacing. He was in kill mode, which was good for me, but still scary as hell. I was happy that the cavalry would soon be arriving, but nervous for Gabe. That much supernatural warrior testosterone and a life-or-death situation didn't always lend itself to keeping a level head. Gabe’s life was in real danger, and I knew it.
Thankfully, for the time being, he didn’t.
I hung up the phone to the sound of not-so-distant thunder. The house shook with the force of it.
“Are you sure it can’t get to me here?” I asked again.
“It has never been able to cross the wards. I see no reason for that to have changed.”
“It hasn’t since you’ve been here, either,” Gabe added. “All the damage has been just off the property.”
“Like Mason,” I said, sadness tainting my voice.
The mention of his dead horse did not evoke the response I would have expected. Instead of sorrow in his eyes, I saw anger and understanding. Two nasty bedfellows.
He turned to his mother and took a deep breath before speaking.
“The explosion…the day Dad died…” She nodded tightly. “It was because of this thing—this Anemoi, wasn’t it?”
“Yes.” She took his hand in hers. “I awoke to the feeling that it had been released and come for me. It was time. I knew I had to face it. That was the way of it. But when I went to find it, I heard the screams on the far side of the creek. Your father, who knew exactly who and what I was, was with my brothers, trying to retrieve a tractor that was stalled on the opposite side of the water.” Gabe’s eyes were wide and teary as his mother spoke, now hearing the truth of his father’s murder for the first time in over a decade. He looked young and wounded, and I wanted nothing more than to hold him and make it better somehow. But I knew better.
Some pain must be borne.
“When I got to them, it was too late,” she said with a shaky voice.
“But you were successful in banishing the Anemoi,” I clarified.
She nodded again.
“What happened to you?” Gabe asked, a single tear escaping to run down his cheek. “Where did you go? Where have you been this whole time?”
“That was my fate,” she said, reaching up to wipe his face. “Once our powers are used, we are never the same. In my case, losing your father was just too much. My mind snapped.”
“Does this mean you’re back?” he asked, looking so hopeful.
“For now,” she replied, giving him a pat on the cheek. “For now, my sweet boy.”
The sadness and unsaid words hung between mother and son like a noose just waiting to tighten. It was clear that his mother knew something she wasn’t willing to share, and I knew it wasn’t good. When supernaturals speak in vague terms, there's a reason. A reason they know is best kept to themselves.
I couldn’t handle the tension in the room, so I collected my crutches and made my way back outside to the porch to await the boys’ arrival. They’d said they wouldn't be long. But even I didn’t expect to see the headlights of a distant vehicle cutting through the growing darkness enveloping the property. The vehicle was speeding down the road, the balls of illumination growing larger by the second.
The relief I felt at the sight of it was more than I could put into words.
I managed my way down the porch steps just as a crack of thunder nearly burst my eardrums. It was followed only seconds later by a violent bolt of lightning that struck what remained of a tree on the property across the street from the farm. It fell easily into the road, creating a barricade for the approaching vehicle.
The sky opened as the winds picked up, pelting the road with punishing rainfall. The visibility had to be next to nothing—even with supernatural vision. It was then that I realized the boys were about to crash.
“Stop!” I screamed, trying to run with my crutches to the road.
“Phira!” Gabe shouted from the porch.
“Help me!” I called back to him, looking over my shoulder as he ran toward me.
Instead of receiving his aid, I got his muscular arms wrapped around my waist, tackling me to the ground.
I struggled against him, looking up at the road just as the driver of the black SUV slammed on its brakes and attempted to swerve around the tree. But even Nico couldn’t outmaneuver physics, and they clipped it, sending them rolling ass over teakettle into the property across the road.
“NO!” I screamed, trying to wriggle out of Gabe’s grasp.
“I’ll go,” Gabe said to me, grabbing my face gently. “You stay here. You can’t leave, remember? It’s here for you, not me. I’ll go help them.”
“Okay,” I replied, nodding frantically. “Okay…”
In my heart I knew they couldn’t have been hurt that badly, given they’d survived a plane crash, but I didn’t trust them being injured and in the storm's grasp. I needed them well and on the farm where they were safe and we could plan. I needed to know we could get out of the mess I’d inadvertently made.
Using my crutches to help me up, I walked toward the edge of the property, wanting to see what was happening. It was so dark and raining so hard that I could barely see beyond the farm’s edge. When I was only feet away from it, Gabe’s mother was at my side, grabbing me by the elbow to hold me back.
“I’m not leaving,” I said, trying not to snap at her. She was only trying to help. “Gabe! Gabe!” I called and called to him but heard nothing in reply. “Nico! Alek! TS! Can you hear me? Any of you?”
“I can hear you,” a bone-chilling voice called out to me. It surrounded me in a way that it shouldn’t have. Like it had been spoken from all around. Needless to say, the storm had come for me.
“Hurry!” I screamed at them.
“Phira!” Alek called from the darkness. “Don’t move.”
“Are you okay?”
“Okay enough,” he replied.
It was then that I saw the silhouettes of four males emerging from the property across the street. Lightning danced through the air all around them, temporarily illuminating their forms. Gabe was helping Alek walk while TS and Nico stalked toward me. I could not see their expressions.
In that moment, I wished I had my empath abilities back.
I had to root myself in the ground to prevent myself from going to them, breaching the wards that were keeping me safe.
“This is some fucking welcome, Phira,” Nico shouted across the road. I could hear the smile in his tone and I laughed at the sound of it.
But my laughter was cut short.
With only feet to travel until they reached the safety of the farm, a not-so-rogue bolt of lightning slashed through the air right in front of me. Its strike was nearly blinding, and the ground shook with its impact. I stumbled backward, Gabe’s mother still holding onto me, and shielded myself from the fiery glow of the blast.
Then I opened my eyes to see that it had not been the ground that was struck.
It was Nico.
His lifeless body lay on the ground at the edge of the road.
“NO!” I shrieked and ran toward him, collapsing to the ground only to scramble across it, no longer caring about the pain that shot through my leg.
I watched as TS moved to collect Nico from the road, only to be stopped by a command from behind me.
“Do not touch him!” Gabe’s mother boomed, her voice carrying a weight that I hadn’t yet heard. It was scary and awe-inspiring simultaneously.
TS looked from her to me, then back to Nico.
“You must leave him,” she explained further, walking over to meet Gabe and Alek as they crossed onto her family’s land. “He has been tainted.”
“He needs help!” I yelled, still crawling toward my brother. With only five feet of ground separating us, a pair of legs stepped in front of me, blocking my progress. TS squatted down before me, helping me up to my knee
s.
“We must leave him, Phira.”
“But he’s—”
“If the witch is right, then we must leave him there. For your sake.”
“And what about his?” I snapped. “We’re just going to leave him to die.”
“You don’t know that he will.”
“And you don’t know that he won’t.”
We stared at each other in the darkness, the standoff between us clear. As clear as who the winner would be if I continued the fight.
“I will find a way,” he said to me softly, wrapping his arms around me. He hugged me tightly, unwilling to let go. “I will not let him die.”
“I will never forgive you if you do,” I told him, burying my face in his shoulder. So many emotions ran through me that I could hardly sort through them all. Relief, anger, fear, frustration, and the need for revenge all warred within me.
But anger eventually won out.
It always had.
I used TS to leverage myself to my feet. He stood beside me as he always had, and I braced myself against him, looking out at Nico’s body.
“You want me!” I screamed at the nothingness. “Give him back and I’ll let you have me.”
“NO!” a trio of males shouted as I announced my plan. My life for Nico’s seemed fair enough. I couldn’t handle it if he’d died for me. Not like that. He was a warrior without an enemy to face. There was no dignity in that death. He deserved better.
I, on the other hand, did not.
“Phira,” Gabe’s mother called to me, coming to join me on my other side. “You must not give yourself to him. You know the consequences.”
“Fuck them,” I spat. “Fuck the consequences and fuck this coward hiding in a goddamn storm. Show yourself, you pussy. I let you out. I sure as hell can find a way to send you back.”
“My my my…she’s a feisty one. So much bravado. So much anger,” the eerie voice drawled. “I will enjoy silencing that mouth. I tire of listening to it.”
“Anemoi!” Gabe’s mother shouted, the name like poison on her tongue. “It is not your time.”
“And yet I am here.”
The reply from the storm made my blood run cold. It wasn’t the same strange voice calling to me from the ether. No. This time it was centralized and distinct and one that I recognized easily. The familiarity of it was what made my heart skip a beat.
My eyes shot to Nico’s body that was now sitting up. His stormy grey eyes glowed at me, and the smile he wore was pure evil. Nico wasn’t dead at all.
Nico was possessed.
He stood slowly, staring at me the whole time. It was as if I were the only being that existed for him. I was all that mattered.
“Sarah, I think you know that you cannot stop me. Your powers have been used up. You have nothing to bring to this fight. Thanks to Phira, I have a real chance at freedom. And I have no intention of squandering that.”
“You cannot cross the wards,” Gabe’s mother reminded him.
Nico’s eyes dropped down to the edge of the road for a moment then looked back up at me. Then he took a step closer to the boundary that divided us.
“Phira,” TS warned, stepping in front of me. “I will have to kill him if he crosses onto this land.”
“You can’t!” I cried. “He's just using Nico. If you kill him, you won’t kill the Anemoi. You’ll just let it loose on the farm.”
“He cannot cross it,” Gabe’s mother repeated, though her confidence wavered with every taunting step Nico took toward the property.
“And he cannot have her,” Alek said from behind me. I looked over my shoulder to find him standing with Gabe at his side. Alek gave me a sad look, acknowledging that, if push came to shove, he was willing to kill one sibling to save the other. That thought was too much for me to bear.
“You see, Sarah,” Nico said, his toes brushing up against the mouth of the driveway, “I’ve never found a body to possess that had the power this one has. He’s impressive, to say the least.” Nico once again turned his stormy gaze to me. “The progeny of the PC…of its infamous leader. How fortunate for me. Serendipitous, even. I wonder if your wards are strong enough to keep the likes of him out. Are you willing to bet on it, Sarah?”
I could feel her stiffen beside me.
I took that as a no.
“Gabriel,” she called, reaching her hand out behind her. Within seconds he wedged himself between her and me, grasping both of our hands in his. “Do as I do, my son. Say what I say.” She looked around her son at me. “I can separate him from your brother, Sapphira, but I cannot guarantee what that will do to either of them.”
I nodded once.
“Well this is exciting,” Nico exclaimed, feigning enthusiasm. In truth, I could see that he was growing irritated with the situation; his enjoyment in toying with us had worn out. The Anemoi was ready to take what he’d come for.
Gabe’s mother started repeating foreign words over and over again. Gabe eventually joined in, speaking the phrase as though it were second nature to him. As they chanted, Nico stepped forward, breaching the wards easily.
The look of elation on his face was terrifying.
“This is going to be sweet,” he said, stalking toward me. Sarah and Gabe chanted louder while Alek pushed past me to join TS, the two of them forming a wall in front of me.
Alek lunged for our brother and was met with a blast of wind so strong that it knocked him thirty feet backward and high up in the air. He landed on the roof of the porch with a crash and rolled off of it to the ground. I screamed and hobbled my way to him.
Just as I reached him, he stirred, lifting his head. Knowing that he was all right, I turned my focus back to Nico, who was squaring off against TS. TS was faring better than Alek had, but the strain on his face told me he wouldn’t last for long. He deflected the blows of wind and lightning Nico threw at him, but he fumbled backward with each parry. He began saying something in a language that sounded Middle Eastern, and suddenly Nico was suspended in the air above TS’ head. With a wave of his hand, he sent him flying through the air back across the road.
The second Nico landed, Gabe’s mother shouted something and a blinding flash of light exploded from her hand that was extended toward Nico. She collapsed into Gabe’s arms for a moment before regaining her footing. It was clear that whatever she'd just done had drained her. Gabe didn’t look much better.
“I must see that your brother is back to himself,” she said, staggering toward the road.
“No!” Gabe shouted.
“I will go,” TS said, heading toward the field where Nico’s body lay still. I hopped my way after him, needing to get a better view of them both. The weather around us had calmed for the moment, and I half-wondered if maybe Sarah had had more magical juice in her than she’d thought.
I watched nervously at the property’s edge as TS disappeared into the growing darkness. My heart ached for both him and my brother to return. The loss of either was more than I wanted to entertain.
The vise on my heart loosened slightly when I saw my formidable bodyguard returning with my brother in his arms.
“He is alive,” TS shouted to me. I breathed a sigh of relief at the news.
But that relief was short lived.
An explosive blast of wind sent the two of them flying so high in the sky that I could no longer make them out. Then I heard two sickening thuds. One behind me near where Alek still lay, and one just to my left.
I looked over to find Nico lying on top of Gabe. He had crushed him in the fall. The scream that escaped me was hollow and shrill and tainted with the fear I knew to be true.
The Anemoi had just killed Gabe, and possibly my brother. I had doubts that TS had fared much better.
“NO!” I shrieked, charging the road.
Gabe’s mother was sobbing on the ground next to me, pushing Nico off of her son. The look on her face was grim.
“Let me have him,” Alek called as he limped his way toward us. He checked Nico firs
t and confirmed he was alive before attending to Gabe, the human boy whose life I’d all but ruined in the span of three days. All because he’d wanted to help me. Alek, like my father, was skilled in basic healing, but I feared Gabe would need far more than that to survive. He’d need a miracle, and we seemed to be fresh out of those.
“Show yourself,” I growled to the darkness. The storm had regained its full strength and raged just beyond the safety of the farm. “Show yourself so I can kill you!”
“It thinks it’s still powerful. Scary even,” the eerie voice called out. “Truly adorable. I wish I could make you my pet, but sadly, I need you dead.”
“You need to be dead,” I corrected, hovering at the property line.
“You think you’re the one to accomplish that end, do you?” it asked. “And how can you? You are powerless. You were powerless even with your powers, Phira. You think I’m the coward, but it’s you who fears everything. You don’t see the beauty in what you can do. You hide that glory from the world. You don’t deserve your powers. And you cannot stop me.”
“I think she can,” Sarah said from behind me.
“Do you, witch?”
“I do. She just needs to reclaim from you what is hers.”
An unholy cry rang out all around us, making me break out in a cold sweat. Seconds later a face formed in the storm before me. A massive, body-less mask made of swirling wind and rain and chaos and evil. The Anemoi pressed his ghostly expression through the cloud’s edge toward me.
“She cannot and she knows it, don’t you Phira?” I said nothing, just stared at the mesmerizing face of swirling cloud and dust before me. “I know what you crave, Phira—what you’ve silently begged for since the day you released me. An escape. Death. And you can have them both. I intended for you to, but that plan went awry when you fell upon this land.”
“You need me to die,” I said. “My powers are not fully yours until I do. And that means they’re still up for grabs.”
The stormy mask frowned, then turned angry.
“They are mine,” he bellowed. “They woke me. They called to me. I will have them. Not you.”
“They are not his, Sapphira,” Gabe’s mother called. “They are yours and yours alone, but only if you choose them. I know your path is not an easy one—I see that now. But it is yours regardless of the price it costs you.”
Live Wire (Blue-Eyed Bomb #1) Page 17