“Like I said,” Jamison continued. “This one's going to be on your skin and it's kinda like sending us a message but without a cell phone. It's not permanent; we can take it away at any time. But just so you feel safe and have a secret way to reach us in case you become uncomfortable there, we can do it.”
Drex agreed. “Yeah, we’ll stop by and hang. They can’t prevent us from coming around. We’re your mates. Man” - he grinned, looking at me - “it feels good saying that.”
Jamison grinned and clipped his shoulder with a fist. “Yeah, it does.”
I kept quiet, not sure how to reply. The guys saved me by each sliding a hand into mine. “You ready?” Jamison asked, giving my hand a squeeze.
I shook my head, palms sweating. “What's going to happen? Do I need to do anything? Will it hurt?”
“Aww, Jumper, it’s not going to hurt.” Drex’s soft voice soothed me. “You might feel some pressure and see a blue light, but that's it. Jamison and I will be doing all the work, alright?”
I gave a quick nod and straightened my spine. “Let's do this.”
Our palms together, blue hues of color swirled and curved around our hands, imprinting a circular design on the backs of them, then disappeared. Our hands didn’t look any different. The circle marks had disappeared too, like nothing was ever there.
“Okay,” I said, letting go of their hands. “How does this work? I can’t even see it.”
“I’ll explain,” Jamison said, taking the initiative. “It's there and we know it's there.”
He placed his fingers on top of his hand. “When you swirl your fingers here, depending on how fast you do it, it will tell us the urgency in which you need us. We will feel the contact on our skin when you touch the mark, and if we shim right after, it will take us straight to you.”
I sighed, relieved. “That makes me feel better.”
Jamison drew me into his arms for a brief hug and let me go so Drex could do the same. “We're not going to let anything happen to you,” Drex said. “Just this weekend and you never have to do it again if you don't want to.”
***
The rest of school went by in a blur, and before I knew it I was at home packing things together for the weekend with my grandfather and his wife and her husband. It felt weird to say that.
I packed a simple dress for Saturday, a pair of outfits for Sunday - not sure what they did on that day - and PJ's, along with all my medication.
I briefly worried about not having a refrigerator close to keep my medicine cool. I was sure they had a refrigerator, but not if it would be easily accessible. It just meant I’d have to plan for it not to be close.
The guys had some warrior training after school and told me they’d text or call when they were through. Drex and Jamison reminded me about the hidden key..
A knock sounded at the door and I briefly wondered who had been sent to pick me up. I tensed as June opened it, and I heard my grandfather's voice. Adam was here.
“Is she ready?”
“I'll go get her,” June replied. But I was already swinging my bag onto my shoulder, making sure not to bump my lifepack. I reluctantly headed into the hallway before June could come fetch me. I waved at her. “I’m coming.”
Rounding the corner, I met my grandfather at the front door.
His old, wrinkly face gave me an attempt at a smile. “Hello, Hannah. Let me take your bag and put it in the car.”
I nodded and gave it to him. “Thanks.”
While he went to go put my stuff in the car, I turned around to June. “Check on Dad for me. Make sure he’s doing okay.”
Nodding, she said, “I will. Do you have everything? All your medication?”
“Yeah. See you Sunday.”
“And hopefully your dad,” she pepped up.
I smiled. “Hopefully. He’ll be shocked to find out what's going on.”
“That he will.”
With nothing else to say to delay going, I walked out the door and toward the Lincoln Continental that my grandfather was currently sitting in and eased into the front seat. I closed the door and buckled up.
“I know this is not what you wanted, but are you alright?” my grandfather asked as he put the vehicle in gear.
“My father's in the hospital, I’m finding out the new world I’ve been thrown into has given me very little choices, and because some asshole is sucking dry the ingredients they use to make the cure that I need, I’m still dying. I’m pretty sure things could be better.”
“I...” He sighed. “I’m sorry.”
Shaking my head, I looked out the window instead of responding. Sorry didn’t make things better.
We drove out of my neighborhood and back onto the freeway toward Blackfoot, but he didn’t drive to the Jag area where the others lived. Instead of turning left, he turned right and drove past the motel my father and I had stayed in, down the road, and up a small hill where there was another loosely knit neighborhood. “You don’t live in the Jag area?”
“No. We’ve never lived over there. Before the Jag area was built with new homes, everyone lived here. A few of us stayed, some didn’t and left their homes empty.”
“Huh.”
“Some of the street names are the same. Burke, Maple, and France, but they’re all west here. Over in Jag, they’re east. Your uncle James lives on West France with his two sons and wife. And your step uncles live the next street over on Olive.”
“And where do you live?”
“On France.” We turned down the street and pulled up to a large, gray brick home with church-like windows with the curved top.
Adam parked in the driveway behind another car. “Okay, kiddo, here we are.”
I undid my seatbelt, ignoring the kiddo comment, and got out. Adam got my bag before I could, and I followed him inside.
The house sounded empty. “Who all lives here?”
“Me, David, and Marrain,” he answered as I followed him past the immaculate entry and down a hallway.
He showed me my room, which looked like any old guest room with no real personal touches. The bed was made with a soft, off-white duvet that was smooth with clean lines.
White fluffy pillows lined the back of the headboard, not a wrinkle in sight, and the pristine fold of the sheet beneath them looked as if it had been starched and ironed.
Cold and unforgiving, that’s what the space appeared to be. The only thing warm and inviting was the feminine plum purple chair that was placed next to the end table beside the bed.
At least I was only here for the weekend. Two days and nights. I could survive this.
Family came over for dinner. Adam told me about my mother and grandmother. His wife was distant to me, as expected. I found out Mom had grown up with three brothers. One of them being Neko’s father. I met them all that night. The meal was fine. Everything was fine. I was even able to store my medicine in the fridge along with Marrains’. Apparently, she takes insulin shots as well. At least they looked like mine.
After the day turned to night, I started to feel off. Dizzy and weak. I excused myself and went to check my monitor to see if I needed a boost. Grabbing my phone from my room, I checked my levels. They were quiet low. That made me worry about my pump. Was it not working? I checked it, realizing that I had never reset the dosage when I put in a new vial that morning. I must have been so nervous about coming today that I over looked it.
I went and took an emergency shot to compensate for it and bid everyone a goodnight. But the feeling of being dizzy and weak followed me into sleep. It was then that I should’ve known that everything was anything but fine.
Chapter Twenty-Eight
I was sleeping when the fire broke out and the smoke alarms went off, but my body was sluggish, like my medicine wasn’t working. Opening my eyes, my vision was blurred. Was it from the smoke? A light shined in the room and I felt hands on my body. I tried to move; I felt my body lifting, then nothing.
I came to with a cold sweat coating my body.
The thoughts in my head were cloudy and confused, but I realized my hands and feet were tied to a chair. I didn’t feel my life pack either. My head flopped around looking at the dimly lit space, which appeared to be a living room empty of all other furniture. My body ached, my levels were off the charts - I was sure - and I was surprised I hadn't seized yet.
Footsteps could be heard off to the left, angry mutterings as well. "You agreed," the voice of my kidnapper insisted; it was vaguely familiar. "You can't back out now. Like we planned, two for the price of one. You get what you want, I get what I want, and no one will be the wiser. So... we still goo-"
I must have passed out again because the next time I came around, Vic was sitting in a chair across from me. My body immediately tensed with fear as I took in his smug smile and the predatory gleam in his eyes.
A sudden chill of disgust swept through my body as Vic let his gaze wander slowly down it. "About time you woke up."
His eyes met mine once more and my skin crawled as if tiny spiders were scurrying along my arms. I was going to be sick. “Why?”
His head tilted back as he let out a psychotic laugh before squaring with me once again. “Let me tell you a little story.”
“I don’t want to hear a story.” He was so quick, I didn’t see the motion of his hand swinging and striking against my cheek. My head snapped back before the sting of the slap registered. Shit
“My story, my time. You get to fucking listen!”
My chest heaved as I brought my gaze back to him; I felt even more dizzy now. This time I kept quiet.
He sat back again, and it was then that I registered the gun on his lap. “Once there was a fucking Lydent girl who decided she should change things.”
This was about a Lydent folk tale?
“We’ll call her Anna.”
Oh- oh shit.
“So, Anna didn’t get what she wanted and went around the rules to make herself stronger so she could take it.” Vic wagged his finger back and forth in a “no” gesture. “The council didn’t like that. They sent her lover to kill her, bittersweet; except, Anna cursed her lover and us.
All the women would not be born with the light. Except you. You are her legacy. You’re part of it. The last one. The one to make it right. Lamont Hall is the reason we are still cursed. The reason for our sordid way of living.”
I took a chance and spoke out, “That has nothing to do with me. It’s an old story people have elaborated on, hardly any truth to it.”
As quick as fire, he raised his hand to slap me once more but paused when I flinched away.
He laughed and sat back. “Boy, your mama did raise you human. Don’t you know, descendant of Anna Caldwell, the words she uttered to her lover?” he mocked. “She cursed her lover to live throughout the generations.”
I pulled my head away when he leaned in closer. “He - the one you call mate, who looks young but is fuckin’ older than dirt - he’s Lamont Hall. The one who wouldn’t spare his lover at the cost of council retribution. And he is mated to you, her legacy?” He sneered. “How ironic is it that Anna didn’t get the love and devotion from him, but you, you have it. You’re the answer to this curse.”
Vic was crazy!
“With her last breath, her heart shall not perish,” he whispered as he stood up, tapping the gun to his side as he walked around me in a circle. “Forever beating in his depths, he will cherish.”
He bent down, wrapped my hair around his hand, and yanked my head back hard. Tears stung my eyes. His nasty breath smelled of chewing tobacco as it wafted across my face while he whispered in my right ear, “Her heart still beats within him. Like a parasite, Hooks, latches onto a Lydent so he can stay alive. He can’t die. Once the host dies, he finds another... but you my dear, you’re the key to his downfall. Don’t you understand?” His filthy lips touched my ear, causing me to jerk.
He straightened, shoving my head away. Moving in front of me, he continued to recite the curse. “Unless willingly sacrificed, for her own shall he bleed. In death, a selfless act. Only then can we be freed.”
My gaze was focused on the gun. It was only a matter of time before he used it on me. I needed to think! Think Hannah! I had to stay alert while psycho killer Vic spouted off nonsense and try to get myself out of this mess. The hidden key! I struggled to touch the top of my hand where the mark was.
My heart pounded in my ears, and I met his gaze. Hoping to keep him talking and delay his plans, I asked, “So... what? You’re just going to kill Hooks to break a curse that may or may not be true? Have you ever thought that the lack of women in your culture is from too much inbreeding?”
His eye narrowed. “Inbreeding? No my dear. It’s the curse, and I’m going to kill Hooks and Jamison.” Then his eyes crinkled as he raised the gun from his side. “And you.”
This was it. I was always going to die. I never thought it would be quite like this though.
“The others will come after you,” I swore, my heart pumping with whatever adrenaline my weak body could produce. “There will be nowhere to hide.”
“Ah, but by then I’ll have two extra lights added to my own.”
I paused. “Two?”
He gave a wicked grin. “Yours has been promised to someone else.”
His arm flexed as he cocked the trigger of the gun. “This is how it was meant to be.”
It was now or never. I finally managed to twist my wrists so the hidden key was in reach.
“Have any last confessions?”
I reached a finger around my hand, praying with all my might that it worked, and caressed it like I’d been told. “Yes.”
He gave me an evil grin. “Too bad.”
Bright lights filled the space just before the shot rang out. I screamed, whipping my head to the side, and squeezed my eyes tight while waiting for the pain. The lights glowed even brighter against my eyelids and a roar echoed through the room as a someone fell against me, shoving my chair back and slamming us both onto the ground.
Another scream caught in my throat. My eyes flew open. Familiar sandy hair rested on my chest and the tang of blood and peppermint filled my senses.
“Hooks!” a gurgled screamed escaped as I struggled against my bonds. It was Hooks! Tears stung my eyes as his bloody body rolled off of me and to the side. His once fierce and determined features were relaxed, his eyes closed, and blood splattered along his chin.
Others showed up fighting as I attempted to roll the chair to the side and free my hands. Evil laughter rang out as balls of lighted fire flew everywhere. Jamison was suppose to show up. Not Hooks. Why? How? It didn’t matter. A whimper escaped from my throat; now he was dead and Jamison would be alive.
My hands were laced with pain from the fall, but I knew I had to move. When I did this, I saw another body I recognized. A scream tore from my chest that was pure agony. “Nooo!” I cried, laying helplessly on the ground. He was safe. He didn’t come! But he had and he was laying right next to Hooks.
Drex appeared by my side, and he quickly undid my ropes with magic then hurried over to Jamison and went to place his hands over his chest. I scrambled over, shoving him away. “Stop. Don’t!”
“Neru, Hannah,” he cried, trying to move me out of the way. “Let me go! I can save him.”
He pushed me away, but I shot up to cover Jamison’s body with my own. Internally I fought with myself to just let Drex heal him, but the warning that whispered in my mind was relentless. “No, Drex. Please.”
He pushed me away again, his disbelief plainly written on his face. “Hannah, stop!”
My heart broke as I backed away and let him attempt to use his healing magic. Wiping away the tears that stained my cheeks, I watched Drex place his hands on Jamison’s chest where the gaping holes were and watched as the light faded further away from his soul. With each moment, Jamison drew further away from life. How in the hell did this happen? Why? My body burned with hate and desperation while I cursed their goddess for doing as she asked. I felt a streng
th wrestling within me as my rage grew. I need something to take it out on, or someone.
Drex’s hands glowed, but after several moments, he still couldn’t heal him. Despite Drex’s attempts, Jamison's chest didn’t move, not even with the barest whisper. He was gone. Glancing over to Hooks, whose body was also covered in blood from several chest wounds, I realized they both were.
“Come on,” Drex muttered, but I knew they were beyond help. “No!” Drex shook his head and sat back then whipped around to me, grabbing my arms. His eyes were blazing as he questioned, “Why Hannah? Why?”
I was mad at myself for letting them die. Mad at Vic for his darkening light. That was the only conclusion I could draw to explain his evil ways: his Lydent light had grown dark. Shit. “Because the Spirit Whisperer told me to let him die. To let him go.” Heartbroken, fighting happening all around us, a soft whisper gave me power. Go child, fight for what is yours. The sadness won’t last long. It was their destiny.
Drex sat back and dragged his hand roughly through his hair. “Fuck, Hannah! That makes no sense.”
Power surged into my body and I shook my head in rage. Fuck destiny. “It doesn't have to,” I muttered, shoving myself off the floor as my chest heaved. “But it’s the truth.” Then I raced into the fight, right to Vic. His eyes widened and he turned a flaming hand my way, but I was fast. Talent fast. I dodged the fire ball easily.
“Hannah, watch out!” Drex cried from the behind me. His doubt in me hurt, but at least he didn’t want me to die.
I moved, dodging yet another hit as Drex held his own in the middle of the room beside Hooks and Jamison’s bodies, protecting the empty vessels. Quinn was on the left side of the room, Win was on the right, and Snowden was in the front. I turned and watched as the flickering balls of flame were thrown at Vic but didn’t cause damage. It was as if he had a shield. Fire crackled all around, the house burning around us.
He is not invincible. Go slow, he may be protected from magic but he is not protected from force.
While the guys kept him busy, I charged toward Vic again, channeling all my anger. He twisted his body when he noticed me coming and swung his fist, but I ducked and clipped him in the stomach.
The Bridge Over Snake Creek Page 22