A Touch of Honor (The Honor Trilogy)

by J. P. Grider

  Storm has given up…for both of us.

  Chapter Thirty

  Cringing as the door thuds open, I brace myself for something akin to a lashing.

  “Thank God,” Ethan chimes.

  Storm hurriedly releases me from his embrace and stands eye to eye with Ethan. “I see you know how to take care of your girl.” Storm laughs. “Good thing I was there to do it.” He taunts Ethan, and I have to laugh. This is not the Storm I’d just spent time with.

  “Shut the hell up, Storm, and let’s get her outta here.” Ethan grabs me around the waist and carries me like he had earlier.

  “Please put me down, Ethan,” I manage to say with as much dignity as I can. “We’ll be faster if you’re not carrying me.”

  Storm snorts as if he’s enjoying this…but I see no humor in his eyes.

  Adhering fixedly to his idea of playing knight in shining armor, Ethan continues to carry me across the overgrown weeds over to the old Monroe school building.

  Whispering into his ear, I beg, “Please, Ethan. Put me down. This is embarrassing.”

  He scrunches his forehead and looks from me to Storm and back to me again. Realization hits him. Ethan frowns and puts me down. “C’mon. I think I found something,” he says quietly, leading us into the building through the wooden shutters he must have previously unhinged. “You first, Honor,” he instructs, clasping his hands together to make a foot stool for me to step up on to...making it easier for me to reach the window.

  Storm jumps through the window, then Ethan, who is holding onto the gray wooden shutter. He puts the board back into place and jams a piece of cardboard under it to keep it in place.

  “I had to throw them off course.” Ethan talks, but I can hear the hurt in his voice…I can feel it in my heart. I guess it’s hard to hide feelings from an empath. I couldn’t hide mine from Ethan. He can’t hide his from me.

  The sun creeping through the cracks in the shutters shines directly on the floor where Ethan is standing. It casts a shadow on a slight groove in the floorboard. Ethan bends down to lift up the piece of wood, evidently familiar with what he is doing. “I took the Dover train into the city, got out, made sure I wasn’t followed and hopped on another train heading back,” Ethan continues saying, as he lifts the board, sets it aside and removes another. Hopping down into the hole, he signals for Storm to join him.

  Uncharacteristically quiet, Storm follows Ethan into the hole. “Hmmm,” he remarks.

  “I know, right. He had to kill a lot of empaths to get this much.” I hear Ethan say, but all I see is the top of their heads.

  “What’s going on?” I ask, stretching out on the floor to take a peek.

  Both of them lift their heads. They’re actually kneeling on the floor beneath me, but it’s a small cubby that they’re cramped inside of. Unable to see what they’re looking at, I strain my neck to get a closer look. Hidden in the corner of the cubby are two large glass jugs of dark red liquid – gallons and gallons worth.

  “Is that blood?” I ask, disgusted.

  “Looks like it,” Ethan says. “We have to get this out of here unseen, but I don’t know how.”

  “Just dump it. It’s evil anyway… and then this whole thing can be done with.”

  Both of them look at me like I’ve committed murder or something. “What?”

  “Honor, we can’t dump it. We’ll have nothing to negotiate with,” Storm explains.

  “I agree with him.” Ethan says reluctantly. “We’d have to show them something, but…I guess Honor’s right. It is evil…being made from all that evil blood. Maybe we should just hide it for now. If this gets into the wrong hands, it can be dangerous. This wouldn’t be enough elixir, either. They’d figure out the ingredients and try to copy it. The only way to do that would be to start killing more empaths…just for their own immortality. That can’t be good…not with the Gaffer in charge.”

  “Then let’s just dump it,” I say louder than I should. “I just want to be done with this.”

  Storm and Ethan look at each other.

  Ethan speaks first. “We’ll figure something out, Honor.”

  “Let’s get out of here,” Storm demands in his normal commanding voice now, hopping up out of the hole and helping Ethan close it up. “Even though you led them away, I’m sure someone followed you…by the way, what happened to the guy who was supposed to be standing look out? How’d you get past him?”

  Ethan ignores the question and continues covering their tracks. He helps Honor out of the building and leads them through the woods to the back of the school.

  “Where we going?” I ask, wondering why we’re not headed out towards the road…where civilization is.

  “We can’t risk it.” Ethan sighs.

  “Where’s the guard, Ethan?” Storm asks again.

  I catch an eye roll and a slight shake of Ethan’s head as he tries to get Storm to drop it.

  “Ethan, what’d you do?” I ask him myself.

  Sighing, he says, “I had no choice, Honor. He would have stopped me from rescuing you.”

  “You killed him!?”

  Storm chuckles. “Welcome to the club, little brother.”

  Ethan turns an angry eye at his big half-brother. “I did it out of necessity, Storm.” He says enraged. “Not because I wanted to.”

  With a shrug and a smirk, Storm laughs it off. “We all end up in the same place, little bro…but hey, look at it this way…since you’re now immortal, it’ll take longer to get there. Someone’ll just have to kill you.” Storm pats his little brother on the shoulder. “Oh, but don’t worry about that…I’ll keep you safe.”

  I hear the sarcasm in Storm’s voice, but I feel the pain in his heart. He’s just mocking Ethan to cover up a bigger hurt.

  Ethan shrugs off Storm’s wisecrack and takes my hand. “C’mon. This way.”

  “Where are we?” I ask, tightening my grip on Ethan’s hands. It’s getting dark and I’m getting scared.

  Ethan doesn’t answer.

  “Ethan. Where are we? Where are we going?”

  “The boy has no idea, Honor. Can’t you tell?”

  “Shut the hell up,” Ethan says to Storm.

  “Guys. Stop this. Please. Ethan, I want to know where we’re going.”

  “We’re getting away. Okay?”

  “You don’t know. Do you?” I ask.

  “No.”

  Crap.

  “I knew I shouldn’t have followed you.” Annoyed, Storm stops in his tracks. “Before we go any further, we have to have a plan.”

  “A plan?” Ethan mocks. “Your plan got you locked up in the icehouse with my girlfriend.”

  “And wouldn’t you have liked to have been a fly on the wall?”

  “Storm,” I cut in. “Stop.”

  Storm’s smirk disappears and he mouths the words, “I’m sorry,” to me.

  “Okay. Storm is right though, Eeth. We need a plan. Do you think they’ll find the elixir and leave us alone?”

  “No.” Both guys say together.

  “Plus, they couldn’t have followed me into the school. I was careful.” Ethan explains.

  “Yeah,” Storm chimes in. “But obviously they know it’s near. They wouldn’t have hid us so close. You think that was just coincidence? They know more than you think. For all we know. They’re probably scheming a way to get the blood out of there too.”

  “The blood?” I ask.

  “The elixir.”

  “Oh.”

  **

  It’s now so dark that Ethan turns on the flashlight app on his phone. Since Storm’s and my phones went missing during our abduction, we have to rely solely on Ethan’s phone.

  “Hey. Can’t we just call 911 and tell them we’re lost?” I ask.

  “No. We are not getting the cops involved.” Ethan says.

  “Uh…this should have occurred to us before, but don’t you have a GPS on that phone? Or can you download one?” Storm presents.

  Though it’s dark,
I know Ethan’s face is turning red from embarrassment. I guess we all should have thought of that already. He quickly finds the app for GPS and attempts to download it.

  “No service.” He sighs.

  “Damn,” I think we all say.

  “We’re just gonna have to find our way out,” Storm says.

  Ethan squeezes my hand, and we let Storm lead the way.

  “Can I ask you guys something?”

  Storm meets my question with silence, but Ethan answers quietly. “What’s that?”

  “Can we please just dump the elixir? I’m really getting bad vibes from it.”

  “I guess…” Ethan tries to answer, but Storm interrupts.

  “No. We need to hold onto it.”

  “But why?” I whine.

  “Okay.” Storm stops walking and turns around. “Suppose we do dump it. What happens when one of his men catch up to us and ask us for it? When we tell ‘em we dumped it, do you really think they’ll be all ‘oh, okay, we just thought we’d ask for it. You don’t have it anymore? No problem. Thanks anyway.’ No. They’ll kill you just ‘cause they can. And ‘cause they’re angry.”

  “But I don’t like the idea of them having it. Who knows what they’ll do with it. There’s so much. It’ll just get out of hand. It’ll ruin mankind. I just know it.”

  While Ethan is still holding my hand, I feel another hand wrap lightly around my other arm. “I don’t care what happens to mankind,” Storm whispers mere inches from my face. “I only care what happens to you. We don’t dump it.”

  His hot breath so near to my mouth makes me think about our kiss earlier and how much I enjoyed it. But the warm tingle where Ethan’s hand is attached to mine, reminds me that Storm’s kiss should not be on my mind. Digressing from my own thoughts, I turn my thoughts back to the immediate issue at hand – we’re stranded in the dark woods without cell service.

  “Leave ‘er alone, Storm,” Ethan shouts.

  Storm steps back and says, “Yeah, well at least I’m looking out for her. That’s more than I can say for you.” He turns and begins walking the way we were headed before we had this elixir discussion.

  “I look out for her fine. You’re such an ass.” After Ethan addresses Storm, he turns to me. “I take care of you, don’t I?”

  “Of course you do, Eeth. He’s just trying to annoy you. I wish the moon were bright tonight. At least we’d be able to see where we’re going.” Walking through the woods in complete blackness is making me even more scared than being held prisoner in the icehouse.

  Storm stumbles in front of us, causing me to jump. “Storm,” I cry. “Are you okay?”

  “I’m fine, Princess, just a branch…I think.”

  Chapter Thirty-One

  A rustle behind us catches our attention, but when we turn, no one is there.

  “It’s probably an animal.” Ethan reassures us, though I don’t believe him.

  “I wish we could just find our way out of here,” I whisper. “I just wanna go home.” Unable to help myself, I start to cry.

  Ethan unclasps his hand from mine and drapes his arm over my shoulder. Pulling me close to him, he whispers, “We’ll be okay, Honor. I promise.”

  Storm just snorts.

  Ethan and I ignore him.

  A loud thud against the ground announces that we are not alone…and it is not an animal. A large tree limb has dropped in front of us.

  “Maybe the branch just fell loose from the tree,” I hope in a whisper.

  Ethan blocks my way, while Storm takes the phone from him. Shining Ethan’s flashlight on the tree above us, Storm whispers, “Get ‘er outta here. Now.”

  Ethan and I are frozen.

  “Ethan, I said now.”

  But it’s too late. Two large ski-masked men drop from the tree, guns in hand. “Hold it right there,” one of them commands.

  Storm jumps in front of Ethan and me. “It’s me you want. Let them go.”

  The other one laughs. “Yeah. You.” He continues chuckling to himself. “You know it’s the girl we want.” The men come closer, and one of them grabs my arm and pulls.

  Storm and Ethan yank me back, but the other guy grabs Ethan, leaving Storm hanging on to me.

  “Storm, can we call the cops now?” I plead through my sobs.

  “No cops,” one of the bad guys answers. “Besides…no service out here in the woods.”

  “Bring us to the elixir,” the other man asks of me.

  “No, Honor,” Ethan yells.

  Storm snaps his head around in Ethan’s direction. “What’re you crazy? They’ll kill her.”

  “Listen to the boy,” Masked Man number one says. “Now go,” he says, directing us to lead him to the elixir.

  Ethan wrestles himself away from the man holding him and puts him in a headlock, grabbing the gun from his hand. Now Ethan is pointing it at him.

  Quickly, Storm surmises what’s going on and grabs hold of the other guy, yanking him from the grasp he has on me. I scream, “No!” as I see the man cock his gun, ready to shoot Storm in the foot. Storm turns, but I jump at the man to knock him over…giving him more leverage and a better target at both of us. Damn, I think, that did not go as I intended. Realizing the man is going to shoot at one of us, Storm knocks me to the ground, covering me with his entire body. A loud crack resonates through the air, and I feel the full weight of Storm fall on me.

  I hear another crack soon after, and I see the man who shot Storm fall to the ground. Another crack, another thud and man number two is on the ground. I can’t stop to think, but I feel my body go numb. I want time to rewind, because going forward is going to alert my senses to the grim realization that Storm is lying dead on top of me.

  “Honor. Sweetheart. Honor!” Ethan exclaims as he runs over and drops next to me on the ground. “Honor. Are you…”

  “Ethan,” I squeal, unable to use my full voice because of the crushing weight on top of me. Then it occurs to me. I’m an empath. I can heal. Maybe I can…

  “Oh thank God, Honor.” Ethan begins hefting Storm off of me, but I can’t let him.

  “No. Stop.”

  “What? We can’t just leave him on top of you, Honor. He’s bleeding all over you.”

  “Is he dead?” I ask, hoping that he’s not.

  Ethan struggles to find Storm’s pulse on his wrist. “I…I think he is…I’m sorry.”

  My heart crushes inside of me.

  He’s gone.

  Never…have I felt such unbearable pain.

  His body wriggles above me. “Ethan. No. I said don’t move him.” I try to yell as loud as I can, but not much sound escapes me.

  “I’m not…” Ethan says slowly, but doesn’t finish.

  “What?” Something’s going on. “What is it?” I whisper, scared as hell.

  “Um…”

  “What?”

  “Um…”

  The wriggling continues and I smell something smoke-like. Okay, change of plans. I’m getting scared. “Ethan, get him off of me.”

  Ethan moves forward and pushes Storm off of me, creating a soft thud on the ground next to me. I sit and scoot backwards on my rear, aghast at the vision in front of me. Storm is covered in blood. His limp form, prostrate on the ground. From his back, a dark fog rises above him. His soul? I don’t know…but the fog spirals slowly upward. Another murky cloud rises from him…then another. I reach out to touch…something calls me to it.

  “No. Don’t.” Ethan pulls me from my trance. “Get back. We have no idea what that is.”

  Looking up at Ethan, I wordlessly tell him that I need to touch. I lean forward, extending my hand through the fog. My hand disappears inside it. Quickly pulling it out, I inspect to make sure my hand is intact, then slowly reach back in. The fog lifts high, leaving my hand visible. I lay my hand on Storm’s wound while watching the fog.

  Momentarily I close my eyes, absorbing the brunt of pain that Storm had recently felt from the bullet. My breathing picks up, my heart races…my b
ody burns. While I soak in Storm’s death, I force my eyes open to watch the fog. Lightening crackles in the sky, though not a cloud is to be seen. The fog drops and dissipates. Standing behind it are three people – a young girl and a man and woman.

  The flaxen-haired woman, dressed in a long white dress, steps forward, her hand extending towards me.

  “Don’t touch her,” Ethan demands.

  While keeping my right hand on Storm’s wound, I raise my left hand toward the familiar woman. “Mom?”

  The woman’s smile lights up the dark. “Oh, Honor. You remember.” Her voice, as soft as an angel, comforts me like no other. I move to stand, but she stops me. “No. You can save him…go ahead.”

  “But he murdered you all. You want her to save a murderer?” He walks toward the young blond girl who is also dressed in white. “Summer?”

  “Yes, Ethan. It’s me…your baby sister.”

  I hear a sob escape from Ethan’s throat. His sister hugs him…though she’s quite translucent. Ethan almost looks as if he’s hugging air. “I can’t believe you were trapped inside that monster for so long.”

  Summer shakes her head. “He’s not a monster,” she says softly.

  My head becomes light, and I feel like I’m fading, but I keep my hand on Storm and try to focus on bringing him back to life. The man, who I’m guessing is my birth father, dressed in a handsome white linen pants suit, kneels next to me. His hand on my shoulder reinforces his love for me. Between my sobs and the reeling sensation that I’m going to faint, I’m unable to speak. But his hand reassures me. “He’s a good man, Honor. Concentrate.”

  “A good man? Y’all are crazy…he’s killed all three of you.” Ethan is appalled at what I am doing – at what they are asking me to do.

  I am trying my best to concentrate, but with my birth mother so close, I can’t help but focus my energy on her. She presses her hand to Ethan’s cheek. “We died at Storm’s hand, yes…but not because he was trying to kill us. He was trying to save us…and he was just a very young boy. He’d run away. We hadn’t gone too far to die, but we had found ourselves a small cabin somewhere. I guess Storm was looking for shelter and came across our cabin. When he saw the state we were in, he tried to help us. He didn’t know he could kill. Even after, I think he just thought he did it wrong…he’s not a murderer…and he’s not immortal, because it was an inadvertent kill. That’s why he still ages. And he’s a good soul.”