“We gone worry ‘bout that when the time comes.” Carter was back on his feet, the split flesh lacing back together. Physical wounds, like the ones I’d caused, healed more rapidly than wounds from a fire.
“I figured it out,” I said, “how you escaped from the kitchen.”
Zakhar smiled faintly.
“The traps were set up for a Shaman,” I said. “Every one of them. But all you did was decant into a Wraith, and that’s how you got free. That’s why you knew the whole time that we couldn’t keep you there.”
“You are not…as foolish…as you look…Mr. Lyle.”
I kept my eyes on him. “You were just a really good Shaman, so that was what you pretended to be. But tell me this. When I tried to decant you in the kitchen, it didn’t work. I got shocked. Why?”
“Heh…” His laugh deepened to a cough. “When you tried to decant me…I decanted you at the…same…time. Counter-effective.” More coughs.
Stephanie started away, rustling out her red hair. I didn’t go with her. I just stood there, eyeing the dying Decanter. But something caught my eye. His wounds, they were healing.
I stepped back, giving a warning. “Carter…” Zakhar must have decanted to his Shaman state without us knowing and begun to rejuvenate himself.
Carter growled. “Might wanna step back for this.”
He was supposed to be going through detox, but I was certain that this was an acceptable time to cheat. And just like vampires, consuming a creature that could resurrect was all it took to finish the job. Walking away from them, all I heard were the feral mauls of Carter finishing his meal.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-ONE
Trekking through the wreckage beside Stephanie was sobering. We’d both almost been killed, and we’d both somehow made it out alive. Unfortunately, she would have never had her life threatened had it not been for me. In fact, it was because of me that Umara had been murdered out on that hill.
I could still hear the gunshot as it went off by head, and though I despised the image of it, I could still see how she lay after the smoke had cleared.
I’d been right about the power vacuum in Raleigh, and frankly, it was one of the few times I wished I was wrong. Zakhar had come in just months after Marcus had gone, and had Zakhar gotten his Elemental Enhancer up to full usage, who knew how much more damage he could have done to the city? I wasn’t even sure how much damage he’d done with the one time that he had used it.
“How you feeling?” I asked Stephanie.
She walked along side me with her arms crossed, appearing to be shivering though the night was thick with humidity. “Better, now that he’s gone.”
“Me too.”
I ignored the bodies of the officers who lay beneath their cars, and I tried not to think about the distant darkness from the rolling blackout Zakhar had caused with his machine. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”
“I can say the same about you,” she said. “Lyle, I know this has been a lot, and I wish it could have happened some other way, but…I’m glad that even through all this, you and I…well…you and I found each other.”
I wasn’t ready to hear that. Not right now, I wasn’t. “Stephanie. I know what I said before…but…”
She paused in the road, eyeing me.
“I think we might be moving too fast. Maybe with everything that’s happened, we just were looking for whatever we could find to hold onto.”
She nodded swiftly, and though she was clearly disappointed, she didn’t seem to have the strength to argue. “If that’s how you feel.”
My insides churned, because that wasn’t how I felt. It wasn’t how I felt at all, but I just didn’t want to hurt her now that I knew what I was going to say to Rebekah. And making Stephanie feel like she was second to anyone just wasn’t what she deserved.
“So then now what?” she shrugged. “I just go back to my place, my own apartment, and we go our separate ways?”
I frowned, not looking at her. “It’s probably for the best, I think.”
Her knuckle touched my chin, bringing my eyes to meet hers. “But what if I don’t want to, Lyle? What if I don’t want us to have separate ways? Then what?”
“Stephanie…”
“Lyle. I didn’t get to where I’m at by letting the things that I want most slip through my hands, and I don’t intend to start now…okay? We’ll figure this out. I’m taking off the mask.”
This wasn’t me. I wasn’t a heartbreaker. But to be honest, the moment she found out that she was second, I would just break her heart all over again. “Stephanie…we can’t. We can’t,” I said more sternly. “We can’t be together. Ever. You deserve a guy who’s going to cherish you for the woman you are, and right now…that’s just not me. I don’t have it in me to break your heart.”
Her eyes shuttered. She stepped back. “You’re serious, aren’t you?”
“I have to be,” I shrugged. “It’s for the best.”
With another step back, her body cracked and shrank, feathers sprouting from her, as she shifted into a tan falcon, spiraling up and disappearing into the night.
I watched her go, wondering if I’d made the right decision.
The obelisk heated up against my chest, Rebekah’s way of blushing.
I shut my eyes, drew in a breath.
The stone turned ice cold, and she didn’t say anything for a long time.
My lip trembled from the pain in my heart, but all I could say was,
My hand gripped the obelisk. It was so cold.
With a thought, I ordered the pink orb of a soul to leave the stone. It whirled up, trembling as the breeze caught underneath it. I could hear her whimpering…her tears fading away the higher up she flew. And then like that…my best friend in the whole world was gone.
Carter hadn’t said goodbye, and he was gone by the time I glanced over my shoulder. I wondered if he’d heard my conversation with Rebekah before he’d left, or if he’d just gone and left Rebekah and me alone. Either way, I didn’t care. It was over. My obelisk was empty…just like my heart.
Regardless, I needed to think about the next steps. I needed to get to the city and find a paranormal who could dispose of the Elemental Enhancer, so that was where I was headed, on foot, towards the darkness from the blackouts.
Headlights beamed at me from up the road, and with it being so dark, the lights blinded me. These weren’t the yellow high beams that typical cars sported. These were those aggravating bright white lights that didn’t seem to mix with a dark night and a dead man’s curve.
Even on the interstate these were blinding though, and what really baffled me was why the car was heading westbound in the eastbound lanes. I figured that maybe the blackouts had led the driver astray, but it appeared that once the car saw me standing near the wreckage, they speeded up.
I had no idea who was after me, and I was not in the mood to find out. Instead of waiting around, I decanted to a falcon and started soaring up. Before I knew it, I’d been hit! And there I was tumbling out of the sky, landing hard. My body decanted back, and a black bag covered my head.
I couldn’t breathe with the hands around my throat, and I counted four or five voices coming from all directions. Somehow, all of the voices were the same.
“Let me out! Who are you?”
My question was answered with a bat to the back of my head.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-TWO
“And that’s where you picked me up, you scumbag. Now take this bag off my head!”
“Ever had a cigar imported from Sicily? They are quite delicious…savory is the word for it.”
“I told you everything you wanted to know. Now take the bag off my head and tell me who you are?
“In time, Lyle. In time. Just know that you look much better with a bag over your face. That’s just me being honest, me telling you man to man. The bag is better fitting for you. Your face…it does me no favors.”
“Well at least untie me. I told you that I’m not going anywhere.”
“That’s where you’re wrong, my friend. You are going somewhere. You killed my most trusted friend, Zakhar Nesterov. So you are going somewhere, Lyle. You are going to die.”
“Wait. Wait. Listen. What do you want? Just tell me what you want, and we’ll see if we can’t work something out.”
“How about you tell me something? Tell me, what gift can you bring a king that will not insult his royalty?”
“Just tell me what it is. Just tell me what you’re looking for, okay?”
“You seem to have crossed paths with a traitor. A girl. A Stephanie McPherson. She told you that Marcus bought her from me. But what amount of money could you ever pay a man who has millions in his cash drawer alone? No. The girl ran from me. And I want her back.”
“I’m not going after Stephanie. Not for you. Not for anybody. So if you’re going to kill me, then go right ahead.”
“I don’t need an invitation to do what I do best. But I want you to know something. Either you get the girl. Or there are two people who will die before your very eyes, before I do the same to you.”
“You leave my parents out of this, you hear me! If you lay a finger on either of them, I swear I will cut your throat, you psycho!”
“Being that I take you to be an honest man, I trust that your threats are real. I have seen what you do to men…men like Marcus and Zakhar. And as a man who enjoys living, I rather like my throat. So I can promise you this. I will not lay a finger on your mother or your father. I promise. I will lay a bat on them. Again. And again. And again. And again. And again. And again.”
“You listen to me, and you listen good. If you’re going to kill me, then I suggest you do it now, because I promise, I will come after you, and you will regret that you even met me.”
“I regret that already. I am a busy, busy man. Coming to North Carolina all the way from California puts a nasty dent in my schedule, one that will cost a fortune to get out. You will find the girl. And you will bring her to me, and I will make her suffer. If you do not, then you, Lucius, and Jessica will suffer in her stead.”
“Just…let me…GO!”
“One more thing. When you cross paths with Umara Mayorsen, let her know that I am coming for her as well.”
“Umara? Umara? Are you serious? Your friend, ‘Zakhar,’ murdered her tonight. Shot her in cold blood. If you had any control over the people who worked for you, then I would think you might just know that. But no, instead you hire loose cannons, and look what ends up happening to them. The same thing that’s going to happen to you.”
“I hire whom I want to hire. But…as far as what transpired with Umara….well…I think you have a lot to learn about fairies.”
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THE FAIRY GODFATHER
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