I could feel him playing with my hair, winding this or that curl through and around his fingers. I exhaled contentedly. I loved how much he enjoyed playing with my hair. It was soothing beyond belief, and on this particularly lazy afternoon, it threatened to lull me back to sleep.
A low, deep chuckle vibrated in Jason’s chest. “I thought you’d never wake up.”
I stuck out my lower lip and craned my neck to look at his face, resting my chin on his chest. “Awww…were you getting bored?”
He pressed his lips together in an obvious attempt to avoid smiling and sighed dramatically. “So bored.” His eyes shone with mischief. “Until you started talking in your sleep…”
I groaned and buried my face in the crevice between his arm and his torso.
“Careful, Red, you’re verging on armpit territory…”
I snorted into the fleshy void. “What did I say this time? Anything remotely coherent?”
“Let’s see…there was something about a snake in the bathroom and the sun going out in the ocean…” He paused for a moment, and I lifted my head to watch his expression as he made fun of me. Over our months on the farm, this had become another of his favorite things to do when we lay in bed, working up the nerve to actually rise and shine and join the others. “Oh, and you sounded pretty upset about losing your library card.” He laughed. “You said you wouldn’t be able to find the animals without it.”
“Ah…” I flopped onto my back, laughing. “I knew my library card was still good for something.” Jason started to sit up, and I touched my fingertips to his arm. “Where are you going?”
He looked at me, his eyes eager. “Nowhere,” he said, drawing the covers down to my hips and scooting around so he could rest his head on my abdomen. “I want to see if I can hear it.”
“Her,” I said, lifting my head to smile down at him and combing my fingers through his short, dark hair. I was trying my hardest to ignore the fact that I needed to pee.
Jason’s eyes widened. “You think it’s a girl?”
My smile grew into a grin, and I laid my head back on the pillow. “I don’t think; I know. We have a connection, she and I…it’s got to be something to do with our Abilities. It’s something I want to ask your mom about, but so far, it’s become pretty apparent that she’s going to have a combination of our Abilities. She’s been nulling me while I sleep—so I can sleep. That started several days ago, and I couldn’t be more grateful to her.”
Jason pressed his lips to my belly. “It’s amazing.” His whiskers tickled my sensitive skin, and I squirmed. He turned his head to the side, once again resting his ear on my abdomen. “She’s amazing.”
I nodded, grinning like an idiot as some of his awe poured into me. “She is. Our amazing little girl.” Sensing two familiar minds heading our way, I glanced at the door. “Speaking of…”
The doorknob turned, and the door inched inward. Like they were part of a bi-species comedy duo, Annie and Jack stuck their heads through the opening, one right on top of the other.
“Hey sweetie…Sweet Boy,” I said, waving for them to join us.
They didn’t waste any time. The bed dipped and shook as the small girl and larger dog quite literally jumped up and quickly found the best, most obtrusive ways to join the snuggle-fest. Jack claimed the still-warm space Jason had abandoned moments earlier and settled in, resting his chin on my shoulder. His black nose was about a millimeter from my jaw.
“Don’t do it,” I said, trying not to laugh when his dark little doggy eyebrows rose and he emitted the most pathetic whimper. “Jack…”
My dog whined again, his tail thumping a despondently slow rhythm against the mattress.
I rolled my eyes. “Fine, but just one.”
Jack’s tail picked up pace, thumping in triple time, and he licked the entire side of my face.
Annie squealed her approval and delight, I cringed and wiped my cheek on the pillow case, and Jason laughed. It started as a low chuckle, but it quickly gained strength until it became a whirlwind of amusement, of happiness, that I couldn’t avoid. The three of us laughed for what felt like hours, and when we’d finally quieted, we let out a collective, contented sigh.
“We should get up,” Jason said, reluctance dangling from each word. “There’s work to do. The farm won’t run itself.”
Boy was he right. Much as we’d tried to maintain the place, too many tasks had gone undone since his abduction. We’d put so much effort and manpower into searching for him that it had been impossible not to neglect some of our duties around the farm.
I nodded and planted a smacking kiss on the top of Annie’s head. “Alright, troops. Up and at ’em.”
~~~~~
The sun was just sinking behind the hills to the west of the farm when the four of us walked into the farmhouse through the mudroom door and were smacked in the face with delicious smells. There were, by almost anyone’s count, too many cooks in the kitchen with Becca, Chris, Biggs, Sanchez, Camille, and Grayson hustling about.
Annie and Jack ran ahead, the tiny wild child all but attacking Zoe, who was reclining on the couch in the living room, Cooper snuggled in beside her. Jason and I paused in the mudroom doorway, basking in the controlled chaos filling the home’s living space.
Multiple pairs of quick footsteps pounded down the stairs, and a few seconds later, Jake and Gabe entered the kitchen. They headed straight for us, Jake passing by with a nod of hello for both Jason and me, and Gabe flashing a grin and offering a quick “About time you joined the party.”
Confused, I watched him follow Jake into the mudroom and join his old friend in hunting through the jackets cluttering the coat hooks on the wall.
“Let us know when the oven’s hot enough!” Chris called after them right before the back door swung shut. She caught my eye and winked. “We’re having pies tonight to celebrate the grand homecoming.”
“So much for getting back to work,” Jason said. He leaned down and planted a soft kiss on my cheek, then made his way toward Zoe, who was now buried under two dogs and a small-ish child.
Smiling and shaking my head, I went the other direction, stopping at the kitchen island, just opposite Chris. I watched her stir a batter of some sort in one of the enormous wooden bowls Tom had crafted months ago, using one of the wooden spoons he’d made around the same time. “Cornbread?” I guessed, based on the batter’s yellow color. My stomach grumbled eagerly. My appetite hadn’t just returned, it had reawakened with a vengeance.
I’d directed my question at Chris, but it was Becca who answered despite being elbow-deep in a mass of spinach and other veggies in a giant wooden bowl of her own. “Yes, and there’s pot roast cooking in the hearth, and some acorn squash and potatoes roasting, too.” She grinned, clearly taking pride in her work as our head cook. Sarah had taught her well.
“Sounds like a feast,” I said, my stomach voicing its excitement in a full-on growl this time. I glanced around the room once more, noting several significant absences, and I couldn’t hold back my curiosity. “Tom and Dr. Wesley…?”
“Tom’s out in his shop,” Chris said, still mixing. “And Anna’s upstairs, resting with Peter in our room.”
“Oh.” Bummer. I’d been hoping to talk to her about what to expect when expecting a baby with Abilities. “So, what can I do to help?”
“The usual,” Chris said, glancing to the large farm table nearby. “Set the table and fill up water glasses?”
I shrugged. “Okeydokey.” I wasn’t as bad at cooking as I used to be, but the only meal I was usually allowed to help actually prepare was breakfast…when breakfast was oatmeal or grits or some other generally gruel-like concoction. It was hard to screw up gruel.
As I made my way around the kitchen island toward the end cupboard that held the glasses and dishes, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye. I glanced at the mouth of the hallway, then froze and did a double take when I saw who was standing there—Vanessa and Carlos.
I hadn’t kn
own we were doing this tonight. Wasn’t it too soon? Didn’t Vanessa need more time? She’d been so distraught, literally inconsolable since she’d been, well, cured.
Apparently not, because Vanessa stood in the doorway, seemingly unfazed by all of the eyes on her. She looked pretty in the periwinkle wool sweater I’d given to Carlos for her. Her hair was wavy and so long that it almost reached her waist, and it was so dark that it appeared black except for where the candlelight filling the room hit it just right, making it shimmer a dark, almost red-brown, like it was sprinkled with crushed garnets.
Carlos stood behind his older sister, hands on her shoulders. His eyes were opened wide—nerves, I thought—but his jaw was set.
“Well, shit, Carlos,” Chris said, setting down her oversized spoon and wiping her hands on the front of her apron. “I wish you’d told me you two were planning to do this right now. I would’ve prepared everyone first.” She looked around the room and shrugged. “Just so you all know, Dani and I accidentally cured Vanessa…”
The mudroom door opened and shut, and two pairs of heavy footsteps sounded on the hardwood floor, then stopped, I assumed because Jake and Gabe realized what they’d just walked into. In the shadowy hallway behind Carlos and Vanessa, I could see Mase, watching with interest.
Carlos shook his head. “It wasn’t like that. I didn’t know she was going to—”
“I’m sorry,” Vanessa said, back straight and head high. “It’s my fault. I just…now that everyone’s here, I wanted to apologize for, well”—she lifted her shoulders, then let them drop—“for everything.” After that, her words tumbled out in a rush. “I mean, I know I was a huge pain in the ass and you were all afraid of me and what I might do if I got loose, and I just couldn’t sit up in Carlos’s room a second longer knowing that any of you still thought of me like that crazy animal person I was.”
She looked around the room, examining each of our faces. Her gaze lingered on Annie, cuddled up with Zoe and the dogs, then settled on me. “I know I won’t ever be able to say I’m sorry enough, but I really am. You can’t know what it was like—what they were like, always whispering and nagging and pushing and pushing and pushing and never shutting up.” She shook her head, eyes shining. “It’s like they were the worst, most paranoid parts of me walking around, dressed up like people I loved. The things they would say…”
“It’s alright, hon,” Chris said, starting to make her way around the island.
“No.” Vanessa held her hand up. “I want to finish. I need to finish.” She took a deep breath, eyes scanning us all once again. This time her focus settled on Zoe. “You can see what people think, their most hidden, ugly thoughts, right?”
“Well, I…” Zoe exchanged a look with her brother. “I don’t really…yeah, I can.”
Vanessa’s eyes widened. “Doesn’t everyone have those crazy thoughts that they can’t control? You know, like when you’re riding in a car and you’re like, ‘I could totally open the door right now and just roll out,’ stuff like that.” Her eyes lowered to the floor. “Or like when someone says or does something that totally pisses you off and they’re standing so close that you could, like, scratch them or bite them or stab them really easily and they wouldn’t be able to stop you because who expects somebody to do something crazy like that. People think stuff like that…right?”
For seconds, there was nothing but the chorus of our breaths. Until, thankfully, Zoe broke the tense silence. “You’re right, Vanessa, everyone thinks like that sometimes, and if they tell you otherwise, they’re lying.”
Vanessa started blinking rapidly, and when she spoke, her voice was pitched just a bit higher. “Yeah, well, that’s what they were like. My, um”—she raised her hands and made air quotes—“friends.”
Carlos cleared his throat. “But she’s better now.”
“How do we know for sure?” Sanchez asked, adding, “No offense,” as an afterthought.
“Because she has an aura now,” Zoe said, eyes narrowed and head tilted to the side. “When we left for Colorado, she didn’t have one, but now she does.” She smiled faintly. “It matches her sweater.”
38
ANNA
DECEMBER 17, 1AE
The Farm, California
“I just can’t believe you actually did it,” Anna said, shaking her head. That wasn’t completely true; she could believe it. She would believe almost anything, given enough evidence. And when Gabe had told her about Vanessa’s enormous announcement the previous night, her jaw had almost unhinged. “I tried for so long to fix the faulty deletion in the P-strand, and sometimes I’d think I was close, but every single time, the solution evaded me. I might’ve been successful had I had someone with an Ability like yours on my team, but I hadn’t even thought of it.”
Chris’s brow furrowed, and the corners of her mouth turned down. “I wish I knew how to describe what I did in scientific terms, but in all reality, it just sort of happened. It was easy—scarily easy, but it would’ve been impossible without Dani’s help. Or, rather, without the help of the hormones she’s throwing off because of her pregnancy.”
“So you’re certain it was her hormones and not the child itself?”
Chris shrugged. “Honestly, I’m still not sure.”
The two women stood on either side of the island, chopping the final batch of root vegetables for the evening meal—a stew of some sort—which Becca was busy tending at the fireplace-turned-hearth. The way these people had adapted to life without the amenities of modern civilization astounded Anna. She’d been outside of the Colony for barely two days now, and she felt like she would never adapt. She was a foreigner in her own land. But her children gave her hope. If they could adapt to this new way of living, not to mention Gabriel, then maybe, just maybe, she could, too.
Anna’s eyes narrowed as she considered Chris’s words. She herself might not be able to bottle Chris’s “cure,” but maybe Chris could teach others with similar Abilities to learn the procedure. “Do you think you could replicate what you did? Could you achieve the same results in another of the tainted?”
“I don’t see why not,” Chris said. “That is, assuming it’s the hormones and not something specific to Dani’s kid, with enough time and a pregnant sidekick…” She snorted and leaned her elbows on the dark green- and gold-flecked countertop. “Hell, or I could just get knocked up and be a one-woman show, traveling around the world, curing Crazies at every stop.”
Which reminded Anna—she owed Chris a debt, one that could never be repaid. Not ever. But the least Anna could do was acknowledge what she’d done and express her sorrow for the catastrophic loss Chris had endured.
Anna licked her lips, then cleared her throat and placed her palms on the counter, one on either side of her cutting board. “Listen, Chris…” She could hear her voice quaking, could feel moisture forming between her palms and the granite, but she refused to drop her gaze from Chris’s honest blue eyes. “Last spring, when Danielle was in the Colony, she mentioned that the Virus…that you lost your sons, and—”
“Stop.” Chris’s voice was quiet, thick with emotion. Her eyes had strayed from Anna’s, and she now stared out the bay window in the breakfast nook. “I understand why you did what you did, and I understand that if you hadn’t done it, that bastard would’ve found someone else who could.” She looked at Anna, stared through her eyes and into her soul. “You were a tool, a weapon. You were used, that’s all.”
Anna opened her mouth, but realized she had no idea how to respond, so she closed it again.
Chris reached across the island and covered one of Anna’s hands with hers. “As far as I’m concerned, any mother who claims she wouldn’t watch the world burn to protect her kids is either lying or a crap mom. Either way, she’s nobody I want to know.”
Anna’s throat tightened, and she gritted her teeth together to prevent her chin from quivering. “But I didn’t just watch the world burn.” She swallowed roughly. “I set it on fire.”
“Like I said…” Chris gave Anna’s hand a squeeze, then withdrew. “You were just the match. It was Herodson who started the fire.”
A masculine throat-clearing came from the doorway to the dining room. Both women turned their heads to find Tom leaning against the doorframe.
Anna felt her eyes open wide. How much of their conversation had he heard? What would he think of her if he’d seen her giving in to weakness, almost breaking down in tears? What conclusions might he draw, and how could he use them to toy with her in the future?
Except…this was Tom, not Gregory. Tom wouldn’t study her weaknesses, wouldn’t file them away to use against her later. Tom wouldn’t try to manipulate her. At least, the old Tom, the Tom she’d loved so long ago—still loved, if she was willing to be honest with herself—would never do any of those things. But she didn’t know this Tom, not anymore.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Tom said, his voice gentle. He looked at Chris first, but his attention quickly switched to Anna. “I’d like to talk.”
“Uh…” Anna looked from Tom to Chris and back, feeling utterly at a loss for words. “We’re sort of, um…”
“No, no,” Chris said with a quick wave of the hand. “It’s fine.” She started toward the mudroom. “I need to track down Harper for, um, this thing we’re working on anyway.” Seconds later, the back door opened, then closed, and Chris was gone.
Tom took a step into the kitchen, just one, small step. Immediately, Anna could feel her heart rate pick up speed, could feel her chest constrict and her head begin to throb with the beginnings of a panic attack. She couldn’t do this, not now.
“Anna, I just want to talk,” Tom said quietly, and he took another step into the room. Toward her.
The Ending Series: The Complete Series Page 163