by Kimbra Swain
“Abby, can you hear me? I’m still here. Please come back to me.”
She didn’t move. I got no response. I thought about the last time I heard her in my head. She said, “Look I’m gonna do this. It’s going to be painful. I trust you to get me out of here. She’s going to come after me with that knife. I’m going to pull your knife. I will remove any shield or protection she has. Shoot her. Don’t miss. Then I will activate the circle, and we go.” Before I could react, she had dropped and pulled the knife from my ankle. I remember spinning to fire at Vanessa before she got to Abby, because I knew she would take the opportunity. I just was not fast enough. She moved in a blur toward Abby, and Abby knew she would take the hit. She knew that one of us would have to do it. She did it for me. I clinched my fists angry at myself for not reacting faster. I was just thankful she was alive. I hoped she recovered from this. We had so much still to do. I heard George at the door. He had a plate with a sandwich, chips and a glass of milk. My stomach screamed out in sheer glee. I stepped outside the door, and took the plate from him. On the table outside the door in the hallway, a cell phone started to ring. George answered it, and handed it to me.
“Hello,” I said.
“Tadeas! I’ve been trying to reach both of you. Are you okay?” It was Ashley, and she was frantic.
“I am okay, but she is...” I did not know how to explain it. “Look Ash, something happened. I don’t know how to explain it, but she is not conscious right now.”
“Oh, no. I have the police reports from the scene. They found multiple bodies including Samantha’s.”
“Yes, I know. Ash, I’m sorry, but I just can’t talk about this right now. I need to be with her, okay?”
“Yea sure, but Tadeas, just remember that she’s my best friend. I can’t come to her right now. So, I depend on you to tell me what’s going on. Is she going to make it?” she asked crying.
“I think so. I hope so.” I replied to her. “I gotta go.”
“Okay, bye.”
I walked back into the room juggling the plate, the glass of milk and the phone. I laid the phone on the table next to the bed. I downed half the glass of milk and set it on the table as well. It only took me a few minutes to kill the sandwich, and finish off the milk. I walked back out to the door. George was not there. I laid the cup and plate on the table in the hallway.
I went back to Abby. Hours crept by slowly. Her heartbeat thumped once again its normal steady rhythm by the time it started to get dark. I tried to speak to her out loud and in her head multiple times. As it started to get darker, I laid down on the bed next to her, and held her hand. I could see George lurking at the door. I drifted off to sleep listening to her breathe.
I awoke once in the darkness. I swore I heard her voice.
“I heard you Abby. Are you there? Can you hear me?” There was no response. I moved closer to her, and wrapped my arm around her waist. I closed my eyes again, and slept.
The sun started to rise on what I thought was Wednesday, but I wasn’t sure. I opened my eyes and those bright green eyes stared back at me.
“Hey,” she said.
“Thank you, God,” I said and leaned down and lightly kissed her lips.
“Oh, my, well, okay,” she spoke quietly and nervously.
I had my face buried next to her ear, holding her tightly to me. “Sorry, I just thought I lost you, and I was happy.”
“It’s okay. You are stuck with me, remember?”
“Yes, I remember.”
“George, you can come in,” she said.
He stepped through the doorway and smiled.
“You scared us, child. Please don’t do that again,” he said.
“What he said,” I followed.
“It worked out,” she said unaware of what we had been though.
“It didn’t actually, but we can talk about that later,” I said. The frustration of her purposefully taking the hit to get us both out of there could wait until I knew she’d fully recovered.
“Abby, Gabriel had to come. There was no other way,” George said.
She gritted her teeth and winced.
“What does that mean? How is he allowed to interfere?” I asked.
Abby looked at George and nodded to him. “She belongs to them because of the sword. They have the ability to protect their investment, so to speak. But if he has to interfere like this, he loses power. It’s like he has to transfer part of himself to her. If he has to do it too much, he will be forced to retire.” George’s face grew dark. I knew then that George did not just up and retire his responsibilities. He saved someone multiple times, and lost his power.
“No more mortal wounds for you,” I said.
“Yeah, let’s not do that again,” she said. I could let my frustration go. She saved us both. “Can you help me sit up? And I’m hungry.” George hustled out of the room.
I put my arms around her and helped lift her up. She was still very weak. I could tell that for the lack of tension in her muscles. I propped a couple of pillows behind her.
“I could hear you calling to me,” she said. “I didn’t know what was happening. I just knew you were extremely upset. I just focused on your voice. I couldn’t respond. I was using everything I had to try to keep the darkness from spreading through me. Thank you for being there for me.”
“I will always be here, Abby. From now until we both leave this earth, I’ll be here,” I said it, and I meant it.
George returned with a tray of food for both of us including bacon, eggs, toast and juice. We ate and talked a little. She wanted to know what happened after she blacked out. I tried not to explain it in too much depth, but she wanted to know.
“You finally got my clothes off,” she said.
“Deflecting,” I said.
“I’m just sorry I wasn’t conscious for it,” she said, and I almost choked on my toast. “Serves you right ‘deflecting’,” she said mocking my voice.
“Gosh, I’m not sure how I’d survive without this banter, Abby. Please, don’t ever do that to me again,” I said.
Her face turned serious. “I know you are upset, because I pulled the knife knowing that I would go down. But I felt the power in that blade before she ever stabbed me with it. If it had hit you, I don’t know that Gabriel would have brought you back. I don’t know that it would not have taken over your body before I could even get us back here. Healing the power in the fire elemental bullet was a minor task compared to the evil in that knife. I believe she trapped souls in the knife. I knew the only way we both survived was if I took the hit. Please don’t be mad at me.”
“I considered it actually, being very mad about it. But we agreed to trust each other completely, and if you thought that was the best option, then I will concede any frustration over that decision. I don’t have to like it though. Seeing you go through that pain. Hearing your heart stop. Those things are excruciating for me. I’m not mad. I promise. I just want us to avoid it in the future,” I said.
“Agreed.”
“You need to call Ashley before she freaks out,” I said and handed her the phone from the nightstand.
She pressed a few buttons along with the speaker phone, and I heard the phone ringing. Ashley answered and her voice was worried and strained, “Tadeas Duarte, I said to call me. Tell me how she was doing. Damn it. I’m just sitting here not knowing.”
Abby quirked a smile, “If you’d rather talk to him, I’ll give him the phone.”
“Abby, thank God. Are you okay?”
“A little weak, but I’m fine,” Abby said.
“You guys should get back here when you can. Your little speech has set the world a buzz. People are even googling your name,” Ashley said.
“Whatever for?” she asked.
“That’s what people do when they want information,” Ashley explained.
“Is that what you do?” Abby asked.
“Sometimes, but anyway, there have been movements with the GEA. Big ones. We need you to
get back here. Get the rest of the stuff moved out of the compound. I had both of your apartments packed up and moved. Whatever you said at the auction has the world in an uproar. The TCA contacted Gregory, but he told them to fuck off.”
“Yeah, my big speech ended in getting stabbed by a black blade and running for our lives,” Abby said.
“I did all the work,” I said.
“You did, indeed,” she conceded.
“You don’t get humility from her very often Tadeas, you better write that one down,” Ashley said.
“Oh, get bent, Ash,” Abby shot back, “One last thing, Cassidy was at the auction. I had Lukas take her out of there. She should be with him. We need to get her back to Lianne, and find out why she was hanging out with a necromancer. I hate to admit it, but having him there came in handy.”
“You are welcome. I’m writing it down too. Humility twice in one phone call, check. I’ve talked to Lukas. I know about Cassidy. She’s staying with him for the moment. Lianne and the other six have already moved from the compound. He will look after her until you give him instructions. You know he won’t hurt her,” Ashley explained.
“I know. See you soon, Ash,” Abby said.
“Bye, girl. Love ya.”
“Love you, too,” Abby said and clicked off the phone. “It’s a never-ending cycle now. The ball is rolling. I’ve got to get up, and get things ready to go back to the compound. Gregory has got to talk to his brother about the entrance to the portal. See if he will move it. If not, I’ll have to ward it extensively and jump to it as needed from wherever we end up.”
“If you can rest a bit longer, I think that would be best,” I told her.
“I know, but we can’t,” she said and started to get out of the bed. “Thank you for everything, Tadeas. You exceeded all my expectations.”
“No problem, but you do the heavy lifting next time.”
After a shower, I felt better. Still very weak. I wished that I could talk to Gabriel. He should have not gone to such lengths. The world needed him far more than it needed me. I walked down into the sitting room, and Tadeas sat on the couch looking at emails from Ashley. Already in the game, working it like he belonged here.
He looked up at me and smiled, “Yeah, just going through a few emails. No big deal.”
“I see. Anything important?”
“No just the normal stuff. Ashley sent me pictures for our next outing. I get to pick out my own suit,” he said plainly. I had to look back to him to see if he was joking. He had the biggest shit-eating grin on his face.
“You think you are joking. Before you know it, you’ll be getting suit emails from her. If you are a good boy, she might let you pick out your own knickers,” I teased him.
“I don’t wear kickers,” he dead-paned. It worked. My face went blank, and my mind started running in all sorts of directions. He died laughing at me. “In America, we call them underwear.”
“Sod off, Tadeas Duarte,” I laughed at him.
“George is down in the vineyard in the back. He told me to ask you to come down there and join him. Said he had something he wanted to talk to you about,” he said seriously.
“Did he say what about?”
“Nope, but he told me not to come,” he said.
“That’s strange. Okay. Well, I’ll go see him, and then as much as I hate it, we will go back to Boulder,” I said.
“I’ll be here with my emails,” he smiled at me.
I walked out on into the daylight. It was warm, but not overly so. I walked through the corridor, and I saw George sitting on a bench close to where the rows of vines started behind the house. I walked down and sat beside him. He had that far off look about him. I waited until he returned from wherever he had gone. He shook it off, and placed his hand on mine.
“Abigail, I am thankful you survived that one,” he said in that fatherly tone.
“Yes, it was not pleasant, but you remember the good old days when it was one thing after another. I just started this round off with a bang,” I made light of it and smiled at him. He focused on a young woman tending to the vines. I looked at her. She stood a few inches shorter than me. She had the same golden hair. I looked more closely at her features. There was something very strange and familiar about her. I started to stand up and approach her.
“No, child, leave her be,” he said with his hand on my leg keeping me on the bench next to him. She turned her head to us. She smiled at me. She had bright green eyes. She turned back to her work.
“What the hell?” I said. “George, who is she?”
“Her name is Sarah, and she is my daughter.”
I turned to him shocked. “You can’t have children. You are an angel. Or were one.”
He smiled sadly, “Abby, you know as well as I do, that there are ways around everything. A long time ago, I gave my grace to man who desperately wanted to have a child with his wife. They had Sarah. She is as much my child as she was theirs.”
I sat speechless. “Has she been here all along? Working in the fields?”
“She came here shortly after I came here,” he said wincing.
I turned to him. There were tears in his eyes. “I had to save her too many times.”
“You gave it up for her?” I asked.
“The love of a father is strong, Abby. Our Father loves us. We love our children,” he explained. “We love our children enough that when they find themselves in grave harm, there is no choice. We do what we have to do to save their lives.”
My heart started to race. He held tightly to my hand. “No, it can’t be. George, what are you saying?”
“All I am saying, child, is please take care of yourself. There will be a day when he cannot save you anymore.”
I stood up and pulled my hand away from him. My body shook. “No, it isn’t true.”
He turned his bright blue eyes to me, and they were filled with tears. “You should have been told a long time ago. You have a human father and a Fae mother, but there is one who loves you more than either of them ever could.”
I felt dizzy. I felt strong arms wrap me up from behind. I looked down to see the brown arms of Tadeas. “What is it? What’s wrong?”
I just shook my head. “No, George, no.”
He stood up and looked at both of us. He walked to me and put his hand on my face. “I love you like you are mine, but you aren’t. I know how he feels. You are, and have always been your father’s greatest joy. He couldn’t tell you. He’s not allowed. I should have told you, but Gregory didn’t want it. Well, I don’t work for Gregory. I work for you. Forgive me for not telling you sooner, child.”
Tadeas stood silently behind me. He held on tight. I turned away from George and buried my face in his chest. “George, what’s wrong?” he asked.
“Master Tadeas, sometimes the truth is shocking. She will be okay when she processes it all. I’m confident that she is in good hands now. I know you will take care of her,” he told Tadeas.
I heard him start to walk down into the vines with Sarah. I turned and bolted toward him. I hugged him as hard as I could. “I love you, George.”
He hugged me back, and smiled. “Now go, you have work to do.”
I nodded at him. My body still trembled. I turned back to Tadeas. He looked confused and concerned. I walked to him, and grabbed his hand. “Come on.” He walked with me quietly. We got up to the house and in the corridor between the back of the house and the courtyard, and he stopped.
“Abby,” he said. I turned to look at him. I wanted no secrets between us. I walked to him and touched my cheek to his. I whispered in his ear all the things George had just told me. I felt him shudder too, but he held me close while I told him. I leaned back to look in his eyes.
“What does that make me?” I asked him. He knew all my vulnerabilities about my lineage.
“I don’t really know if there is a word for it Abby. I just don’t know,” he said honestly.
“Abomination,” I whispered. His grip tightened
on me.
“No, not that. I know that for sure. It’s not that. We’ve both been called that, and I know it’s not true about either of us. Many people lied to us about that, used it to motivate us to their ideals. You are not that,” he assured me, but refused to repeat the word.
“You don’t think you are now, but have you ever thought it?” I asked.
“Of course, I have. But I had a beautiful and frustrating woman come into my life, and she convinced me that I was special. She believed in me. She was right. I believe in her, too,” he said as he wiped the tears from my cheeks.
“She sounds like a real pain,” I said.
“She is when she’s deflecting,” he replied. We were in another of those moments when the tension between us was overwhelming. I wanted him more than anything right now. The alarms sounded in my head. I pushed my feelings down. I couldn’t give in now. The stakes had been raised with George’s revelation. The stakes actually hadn’t changed. I just knew better now what they were. He watched me intently. I knew he felt it too. I swear my heart skipped a beat, if that is even possible. I tried to shake it off. He quirked a smile at me.
“What?” I asked.
“When you are ready, you let me know,” he whispered and led me back into the house, and we took the portal back to Boulder. I could never be ready. Especially now.
The compound was strangely quiet. We found the rest of the team in Ichiro’s lab. Ashley plowed Abby when she hugged her that they both almost ended up on the floor. I shook hands with Ichiro, then Ashley turned around and hugged me, too.
“Thank you for keeping her safe,” she said.
“Well, I got her home. I don’t know about the safe part,” I admitted. Abby rolled her eyes at me.
“Whatever it was, she’s still alive,” she said.
“What’s the word, Ash?” Abby asked. “Pretty quiet in the building.”
“Yes, Gregory left just a little while ago. Like in the last 5 minutes or so. You just missed him. He said he would meet you at the next point. We went ahead and assigned all the canvas groups that were in training. They are already with their proxies or on their way to them except, of course, Travis and Samantha. There are still a few instructors in the center removing essential equipment. We opened up the back-up elevator shaft to help get some of that equipment out.”