04 Last

by Lynnie Purcell

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” I asked Eli.

  Eli looked at me. His eyes were suspicious. He thought I meant ‘fight’ instead of ‘talk.’

  “I’m not really asking,” I said. “You either talk to me or Reaper takes out his aggression on your face again.”

  Eli glanced at Serenity for permission. She nodded once at the unasked question in his eyes, and then went back to lifting stones. I pulled myself out of the hole and walked down the mountain. Eli followed me. I walked until I could not hear the shifting of the rocks, which was quite a ways. I wasn’t eager for the others to overhear me, or come running if my words backfired. Part of me was hoping I would make Eli mad enough to attack me, another part of me wanted to understand where he was coming from.

  We were at a small dirt road barely big enough for a car when I finally stopped to face him. He stopped walking abruptly and looked at me with narrowed eyes.

  “You don’t get to come back here and act like you are acting,” I told him. “You don’t get to mutter insults under your breath or tell Spider what to do. You left. You left the kids when they needed you most. You abandoned Spider and Alex, because of your prejudice. They’ve had enough pain and hurt for you to continue to cause them hurt.”

  He looked as if he was going to scoff at my words, but I stopped him.

  “You didn’t see the aftermath,” I said. “You have idea the pain you left in your wake. Every time Alex has to see you, the pain is worse. The same goes for Spider. You need to grow up.”

  “Grow up?” Eli asked in a deadly quiet voice.

  “That’s what I said,” I replied.

  “What do you know about ‘growing up’?” he asked me. “You spend your life being rescued by people stronger and better.”

  “Your insults would mean more if they were true,” I said. “But you should know that you’re really starting to sound like people who work for Marcus. No one is better than anyone else. Your prejudice is making you think backwards.”

  “Quit saying that,” Eli said. “I’m not prejudiced. I fight evil. That’s all.”

  My eyebrows lifted in to my hairline. “You hate Alex because of what she can turn in to. No other reason. She’s far from evil, yet you still hate her.”

  “I don’t hate her,” Eli said in a voice barely heard, even with my super-hearing.

  “Well, you are doing a great impression of it,” I retorted. “You’re the one who left her after the joining. She didn’t leave you. She didn’t abandon you to emotions she couldn’t reconcile. If you had stayed, she would have tried to work it out. She would have loved you like you have never been loved before. But you didn’t stay. You ran away.”

  Eli’s face had lost the impassive quality I was used to seeing. His whole being shook with his emotion.

  “I left because of her!” he said in a voice that was almost a cry. “I left to keep from killing her!”

  “What does that mean?” I asked.

  “After you left to go find her, I went back to my father’s study to think. Near dawn, a Nightstalker appeared on my roof. My first thought was not of Alex, and what I had seen, but of the enemy. I attacked the creature. We fought. I broke the thing’s arm. It howled in pain then…it turned in to Alex. I was…not prepared for that. There’s no way I can describe to you how it felt to know that I had hurt her, regardless of her shape at the time. You cannot even begin to understand.”

  “So what? You left to keep from fighting her again?” I asked.

  “My hatred of Nightstalkers clouds my judgment,” Eli admitted. “What if there was another misunderstanding? Another fight I couldn’t control? Killing her would kill me. I couldn’t stay…I didn’t want to leave, but it was my only option beyond hurting her again. Serenity gave me a way to channel the anger. It’s a good way.”

  I felt some of my anger drain away at his words. I didn’t like what he was saying, but I understood his logic. I would feel the same way if I had attacked Daniel in so dramatic a manner. The fight Eli had with Alex was the sort of fight that changed you; it had to. He had left to keep from hurting her again, to protect her. It was the sort of protection I didn’t like, but I couldn’t deny the emotions implicit in the act. He had left, thinking he was doing the best thing for everyone. I hit Eli on the chest.

  “You’re an idiot!” I told him.

  He looked taken aback by my words. His hand moved to his chest as if my blow had actually hurt him.

  “I can’t undo what I did,” Eli said with a sad shrug.

  “That’s right,” I agreed.

  I looked over my shoulder in the direction of the others. The look made me think of Alex and Reaper. Despite the tension they shared lately, there was something special between them. It was the sort of ‘special’ that went beyond her ability to change in to a Nightstalker or what that meant for their future. Reaper and Alex could be there for each other in a way Eli could never dream to be her. As far as I was concerned, Eli had lost his chance.

  “I don’t agree with the choice you made. I think there were other ways to handle it. But now that you are back in her life, you don’t get to come in between Reaper and Alex,” I said. “Your ship has sailed.”

  “Is there something between them?” Eli asked.

  “Sort of…there will be…if you don’t get in there and stir up a hornet’s nest in Alex’s head.”

  Eli nodded in understanding.

  “And stop making comments to Spider. Either talk to him and explain yourself or don’t talk to him at all. He’s hurting, too, though he won’t show it to you. You were his brother, someone who would never abandon him and…”

  “I left without a word,” Eli said. “I know. I get it. I’m not stupid.”

  “No, just dumb,” I said.

  The sound of tires on the road distracted us from our conversation. We had been so wrapped up in our discussion that we had not noticed the distinct sound cut through the forest. We both turned to look as an SUV with police lights on top rounded the corner of the road. Branches slapped against the edge of the SUV as it made its way up the mountain. Eli and I exchanged a look as the SUV slowed down at the sight of us. The thoughts from the driver were loud after spending so long surrounded by people whose thoughts I could not hear. I put up a wall to block him automatically. It was a mistake.

  The driver put the SUV in park and got out, gun in hand. I recognized the driver. It was Chuck. He had been elected sheriff after Cobb had ‘gone missing.’ Chuck was round all over and had the sort of face that was always smiling, even when he was not trying to appear jolly. Sweat was beaded on his forehead, despite the cold. He pointed his gun at me, his eyes flicking between Eli and me with the training of a seasoned cop.

  “Show me your hands!” Chuck demanded.

  I held up my hands, proof that I was not going to attack him.

  “What’s going on?” I asked.

  “Clare Michaels…you are under arrest for the murder of Sheriff Cobb,” Chuck added.

  “Chuck…” I started to protest, a cold knot forming in my stomach at his words.

  How on earth could he know that I had killed Cobb? There was no way. There was no way he could know without having been there. Cobb’s body had been burned beyond recognition. No one living had seen what I had done – no one beyond Daniel.

  “Put your hands behind your head and walk toward me,” Chuck said.

  Eli tensed at the words. I saw violence looming in his eyes. A gun would be nothing to him. He would be on Chuck before he got off a second shot. Eli would kill Chuck. I saw it in his eyes. I warned Eli with a look not to attack. We didn’t know what Chuck knew, and I was curious. I wanted to know if he knew more than he was saying or if Marcus had him in his pocket. It wouldn’t be the first time Marcus had a sheriff of King’s Cross under his spell. If Chuck was working for Marcus, then he would be fair game. But I had to figure out the truth first. Something more was going on – I could feel it.

  Chuck had noticed Eli’s subtle sh
ifting.

  “You there! Stay put. Don’t move,” Chuck said.

  “He’s not going to move,” I said, moving my hands to my head as Chuck had asked. “Dang, Chuck. Maybe you should put that gun down before you poke your eye out or something.”

  “Be quiet!” Chuck warned me.

  I stepped in front of Chuck with one eyebrow raised.

  “What now?” I asked.

  Chuck looked put-off by my casual tone.

  “Turn around, and put your hands behind your back,” he said.

  I did as he asked and heard him holster his weapon and pull out his handcuffs. He was not gentle as put the cold steel around my hands. I cringed as the metal cut in to my skin, but I didn’t complain. Chuck put his hands on the cuffs and forced me to walk over to his SUV. He helped me get in the back of the vehicle, which had a metal partition separating the front from the back and doors that could only be opened from the outside. When I was safely locked away, he got in on the driver’s side. His eyes raked the rearview mirror a couple of times as he moved his vehicle in to reverse.

  Outside, Eli watched us with narrowed eyes. I sensed him trying to understand what I had planned. He knew it was dangerous for me to be taken away without supervision. He had heard enough from the others to know about my months of torture. He knew I had a way of finding trouble. As Chuck maneuvered us back down the mountain, Eli disappeared in to the wilderness. I knew he would be watching.

  The drive down the mountain was long. We passed familiar landscapes. The lake Daniel had taken me to after the fight with Cobb flashed by in a wave of color and light reflecting off the dark water. I heard roar of the waterfall and the memory of swimming with Daniel in the water came back. The memory made me focus on the oddity of seeing Chuck so near the bunker, at exactly the same time we had arrived.

  I leaned forward to talk through the mesh separating me from him. I lowered the protective shield I had placed around my thoughts. The onslaught was better than walking in to a situation blind. I had to know if his allegiances went beyond being sheriff and arresting a wanted criminal. I had to know if he had ties to Marcus.

  “How did you know where I was?” I asked Chuck.

  Chuck’s eyes raked the rearview mirror again.

  Girl thinks she’s smarter than a trained sheriff! Ha. She shoulda known better than to come back to the scene of the crime.

  “I put hidden cameras near the bunker. I figured the killer might try to come back and erase evidence after we released information about finding Cobb’s body,” his voice mimicked his smug thoughts.

  “You found Cobb?” I asked in as innocent a voice as I could manage. “Where was he? I thought he was lost during a hunting accident?”

  An image of Cobb’s body, burned and buried under rubble came in to his mind at the question. It was an image he quickly suppressed. The thought forced me to repress a shudder.

  “That game won’t work,” Chuck said. “We have evidence linking you to his murder.”

  “Evidence?” I asked. “That’s impossible.”

  Was it impossible? Had there been evidence? I had thought the fire had destroyed all traces of our fight. I knew it had burnt the Nightstalkers and Thomas, the Watcher, to ashes. So much had happened that night; I had forgotten that human bodies did not burn the same way as Watchers. They didn’t just dissolve to ash.

  “You were smart to set the fire,” Chuck said. “But we were lucky. A large part of the ceiling fell on Sheriff Cobb. It protected him from the worst of the flames. Tissue remained intact.”

  “So?” I asked.

  “So, we found your fingerprints all over his neck and marks to suggest he was strangled…by you.”

  “I strangled an old man?” I asked. “Why would I do that?”

  That’s a question been on a lot of people’s minds. How you could save one person’s life and end another. Some people think all that traveling made you wild. Something about setting fires at schools and drugs, but I think it’s much simpler. Greed always gets ‘em in the end.

  “Sheriff Cobb had documents that suggest your grandfather gave him some priceless artifacts. It’s likely you discovered the cost of these artifacts and confronted Sheriff Cobb. When he wouldn’t give up his property, you killed him,” Chuck said.

  “What artifacts?” I asked.

  He didn’t answer, but he couldn’t stop the visuals. I was surprised and more than a little annoyed when I saw the sword we had been hunting appear in his thoughts. It was perfect and clear, the coloring so vivid that I knew he had seen it first-hand, instead of in a book. He had touched the sword, held it in his hand. He didn’t know what it meant, but he had held it.

  I tried to focus on keeping his thoughts focused on the sword. I had to know what he had done with the sword. Where was it now?

  “Were the ‘artifacts’ destroyed in the fire?” I asked, trying to maintain my innocent tone around my burning curiosity. “I mean…why would I kill Cobb for those ‘artifacts’ and not take them afterwards, right?”

  Chuck was bothered by my logic. He hadn’t considered that fact – he had thought he had figured me out. He pushed away his doubt and answered with a smug tone, as if he was validated by what he had to say next. The thoughts that preceded his words were a relief. As he spoke them aloud, I felt myself already plotting.

  “We have the sword in evidence and the documents proving the legitimacy of his right to the antiques in question. They are at the station.”

  Around my plotting, I was annoyed. We had done all the digging for nothing. The sweat and the backbreaking work had been nothing more than exercise. I was comforted only by the idea that he was taking me to the sword. The answer was closer than I thought.

  “I don’t doubt it,” I said amicably. “How did you find him? Last time I was in town, nobody seemed to know what happened to him.”

  “His daughter gave us various documents, including those that prove the sword is his. One of those documents mentioned the bunker he had bought four years ago. We followed the lead and found the cellar under the rubble.”

  “Oh,” I said. “And instead of going on a manhunt for me, you put cameras on the bunker. That seems somewhat unlikely that it would have ever worked. I mean, what are the odds?”

  Chuck’s mind worked to correct me, even though his face was impassive.

  We did go on a manhunt. Three counties worth… and we put out word to be on the lookout, but you are a hard person to track down. It’s like you just…disappeared. You and Ellen both. No wonder Ellen took off as suddenly as she did. She probably heard about the murder and didn’t want to be a part of it…unless the girl murdered her, too.

  “It was a lucky lead that paid off,” Chuck said. “We’re not a bunch of yokels, you know.”

  “Of course not,” I said. “Problem is that things didn’t happen like you’re saying.”

  The doubt in Chuck’s mind had increased with every logical thing I had said. It helped that he wasn’t used to thinking of young girls as murderers. I felt a pull to ignore the doubt, something in his brain that told him to forget what I was saying. The pull made me curious. It made me wonder if there was not an external mind at work on his actions. I knew that Marcus had a way with people’s minds. Was he controlling Chuck’s?

  “That’s for the jury to decide,” Chuck said in a harsh voice.

  “You do realize that I’m under age?” I asked. “You need to call Ellen before you can question me. You’ll also need to make sure there is a child’s advocate present. You also didn’t read me my rights…”

  “How do you know all that?” Chuck asked.

  “Ellen is dating Sam,” I said. “He happens to be a lawyer. A very good one. You do remember Sam, right? Or is he a suspect, too?”

  “No…” Chuck said.

  We pulled off the dirt road and on to a narrow two-lane road. Chuck didn’t say anything else to me as we drove, though his accusing thoughts were loud enough. I didn’t cut them out in fear that he would thi
nk more relevant things I needed to know in order to get the sword back. He didn’t. His thoughts switched to more mundane matters, his personal life – a wife that was good at giving him grief, and a daughter who was starting to rebel against him. Thinking of the daughter made him look at me more than once. He couldn’t understand how any girl my age could rebel enough to kill an old man.

  It took close to thirty minutes to make it to the police station. The brick and the overhanging trees had not changed at all since the last time I had seen the structure. The only difference was the amount of vehicles in the parking lot. Only three other vehicles were in front of the building. One of the vehicles was a Forest Ranger truck.

  Chuck parked his car and, with a sigh at having to move his bulk, got out to help me out. He was firm but not rough as he maneuvered me out of the back seat and toward the door of the station. He was professional, despite considering Cobb a mentor. He was worried that being rough with me would somehow ruin the case he had built against me.

  As we walked across the lot, I felt the feeling of eyes on my neck. I could sense someone watching me. It was impossible to tell if the watcher was friendly or not, but I hoped it was one of my friends. I had to hope that Eli had told them I had been taken.

  Chuck held the door for me as I entered the station. The two deputies, who were inside, stopped what they were doing to stare at me. One had been on the phone. His mouth fell open when he saw me. I heard the other person on the line.

  “Are you there? Son? Hello?”

  The second person stopped in the middle of the room. He had been walking from one desk to the other; he had paused mid-step. I stared back at them, feeling amused by their thoughts, which were surprised and completely terrified. They thought I was a ruthless killer. They only had it half right.

  “Howdy,” I said. “Wet day, huh?”