Oracle

by Amy Reece

  Rémy and Luc were still throwing punches, but Luc got in a lucky blow that seemed to daze Rémy. He fell to the ground; Luc took the advantage and kicked him viciously in the ribs, pushing him near the edge of the platform. Rémy screamed in pain. My vision hazed red as Luc drew his foot back yet again, preparing to kick Rémy in the face. I raised my hand and sent another blast of energy that hit Luc square in the back and sent him flying over Rémy to the bricks below.

  I thought I heard a cry of some sort from behind me, but I was too busy rushing across the room to Rémy. “Are you okay?” I pulled him up from the floor and threw my arms around him. He squeezed me briefly, clutching his ribs in pain, then set me aside and went to look over the edge of the platform. He turned back to me and shook his head. I pushed the buzzing that was trying to creep in my brain away. I had too much to deal with at the moment.

  “Jack?” Megan pushed herself off the floor. “Jack!” She ran across to where he was lying on the ground.

  I cried out in horror as I realized he wasn’t moving. My legs were rubber as I ran/crawled to where my husband lay crumpled on the floor. “No, no,” I whispered in terror as I saw the pool of blood spreading beneath him. So much blood. He was unconscious, his dark face more pale than I ever thought possible. “Oh, God! Please, Jack, please don’t do this! Wake up!”

  Megan was huddled on the other side of Jack, crying hysterically. “Kai! Please, Kai! Help him!”

  I was unceremoniously shoved out of the way as Kai moved to Jack’s side, ripping his shirt up to reveal a gaping wound in his stomach. It looked like he’d been stabbed. Kai placed his hand directly over the hole, closed his eyes, and bowed his head forward, nearly resting it on Jack’s chest.

  “What in the hell?” Rémy rushed forward.

  “No!” Megan screamed and threw herself at him, holding him back by virtue of grabbing ineffectually at his shirt.

  “Rémy, let him be!” Mina appeared, blood streaming down her face. Rémy forgot Jack and rushed to her side in time to catch her as she fainted.

  I turned back to Jack just as Kai shuddered and sat back. He dropped his bloody hands away from Jack’s body and drooped in defeat. No. Oh, God, no. I took Kai’s place, bending over Jack’s too-still form. I took his limp hand in mine and kissed the back of it, the sobs building in my chest, bursting out in a harsh explosion. Not Jack! Please, not Jack! How would I live without him? Endless moments passed; the only sound in the entire building was the echoing of the sobs from Megan and me. Then, I felt it: the smallest flutter of movement from the cold hand I held in mine. “Jack?”

  He gave a gasp, sucking in air as he struggled to sit up. “Ow!” He grasped his stomach. “What the hell happened?”

  “Jack! Oh, my God!” I threw my arms around his neck and sobbed even harder as his arms came around me.

  Chapter Twelve

  “Love resistless in fight, all yield at a glance of thine eye, Love who pillowed all night on a maiden's cheek dost lie, Over the upland holds. Shall mortals not yield to thee?”

  ―Sophocles, Antigone

  I covered his face with kisses, stopping only when he grabbed my head in his hands.

  “I’m okay, babe. I’m okay. My stomach hurts like hell, but I’m okay. What happened?”

  “You were stabbed, I think.” I tried to speak but was still crying. “Kai. Kai saved you.”

  As I said his name, the boy sat up and looked to where Rémy was holding an unconscious Mina in his arms. He crawled over to them, wiped Jack’s blood on his t-shirt, and placed his hand on Mina’s head. He closed his eyes and concentrated for a moment. When her eyelids fluttered, he removed his hand and slumped backward.

  “She’ll be fine,” he murmured. “So will the baby.” Then he passed out.

  No one said a word; we all simply stared at each other with blank, stupid looks on our faces. Megan ran to her friend while I met Mina’s eyes. We slowly smiled in understanding.

  “You’re…pregnant?” Rémy whispered. He spoke in French and I was certain he didn’t realize it. Mina nodded happily. Rémy turned decidedly pale with a tinge of green and Mina wisely pushed his head down between his knees and murmured to him softly.

  I helped Jack to his feet as he clutched his stomach. “I’m fine,” he groaned. “Call Brian while I get the little guy.”

  “I have to get my gun,” Rémy said as he pushed to his feet, groaning and clutching his side. “They could trace it to me.” He disappeared down the stairs to retrieve the gun Luc had taken from him.

  An hour later, we were seated in our living room. Kai reclined on the sofa, wearing one of Jack’s t-shirts and sipping orange juice, while Rémy sipped a whiskey, both of them slowly regaining their color. I heard the shower shut off and took a glass of whiskey back to the bedroom for Jack. He was wearing a pair of boxers and was sitting on the closed toilet seat, examining the black t-shirt he had been wearing, his finger poking through the knife hole.

  “Here.” I handed him the drink. “You probably need this.”

  He looked up at me, took the glass from my hand, and belted it back. “I got stabbed. I should probably be dead.”

  “I kind of think you were for a minute.” I lifted my trembling hand to my mouth, trying to keep in a sob. I failed. Jack set aside his glass and pulled me to sit on his lap. “I almost lost you tonight,” I whispered against his chest.

  “But you didn’t. I’m still here. I don’t know how or why, but I’m still here.” He held me as I cried for a few minutes. When I quieted, he stood and moved to the bedroom to get dressed. I sat on the bed, watching him pull on a pair of jeans. As he straightened, I reached out to touch the smooth, unmarred skin of his stomach.

  “I owe Kai everything,” I whispered. I stood on tip-toe and pulled his beloved face down to mine and kissed him fiercely. “I’m so sorry, Jack. Now I know how you felt when I came close to dying. When I saw you lying there, lifeless”—I choked on the last word—“I wanted to die too.”

  He pulled me close and kissed me just as fiercely. “I know, babe. I know.” He held me for a moment. “Is everyone still out in the living room?”

  I nodded. “Yeah. Brian will be here soon.” I had called him as Jack and Rémy scoured the room at the rail yards, making sure there was nothing that could possibly lead back to any of us.

  Kai was looking better, sitting up next to Megan, who hadn’t left his side since we got home. I walked over to him, sat beside him, and pulled him into my arms. He seemed shocked and might have resisted had I given him any sort of chance. The power that surged through him, even in his current state of exhaustion, was immense and unlike anything I had ever encountered. This would bear greater examination at a later date, but for now I owed this boy every bit of gratitude I could muster for saving Jack’s life.

  “Thank you, Kai. Thank you for saving him.” He froze for a few seconds then hugged me back tightly. My heart melted as I met Jack’s eyes over Kai’s head.

  Jack knelt in front of him and joined the hug. “Kai. I don’t even know how to thank you. I can’t even express what I’m feeling right now.” His eyes were wet as he closed them, his head resting on top of Kai’s. He pulled himself together and stood to shake Rémy’s hand. “So, congratulations, Dad. Oh, and on the whole Oracle thing too.” I had caught Jack up on what he had missed while he was unconscious during the drive home.

  Rémy smiled weakly and then laughed. “I’m going to be a father. Finding out about the Oracle is nothing compared to that.”

  “That is a very sweet thing to say, love,” Mina said as she plopped on his lap. I noticed he grabbed his ribs and winced, trying to hide it from Mina. “That has earned you a kiss, at the very least.”

  “So, Rémy is the Oracle,” Jack began. “And Ally is the Shield. I guess that makes sense, and Mina is definitely the Heart of the Oracle. All this time.” He shook his head. “Hey, you okay?” He had turned back to me, knowing me well enough to realize I would be upset that my actions as the Shield ha
d ended the lives of two men tonight.

  I nodded as I winced. “I will be. I didn’t mean to hurt anyone, but it was a choice between Rémy and them. I had to protect him. I had to. I would do it again if I had to.”

  “Luc’s dead, isn’t he?” Kai asked quietly.

  I moved back to sit by him, taking his hand. “He is. I’m sorry, Kai.”

  “I’m not,” he said flatly. “I hated him.” Then he melted against me, sobbing violently.

  “Hey, hey,” I soothed, smoothing his blond curls out of his face. “It’s okay. It’ll be okay.” I let him cry it out, which he seemed to need. Jack pushed a tissue in his hand as he began to calm somewhat.

  “What’s going to happen to me?” he asked as he mopped his face. “I hated him but he was all I had.”

  “You’ll stay with us,” Jack stated firmly. “At least until we can figure out what to do. Is that okay?”

  Kai nodded. “Yes, sir. Thanks.”

  Megan stood and hugged her brother. “Thank you, Jack. I love you.”

  “I love you too, Meg.”

  Mina had the presence of mind to put together some sandwiches, which Kai and I devoured. Our expenditures of psychic energy earlier had drained both of us. Rémy tried to refuse, opting instead for another whiskey, but Mina firmly took the glass out of his hand and replaced it with a sandwich. He was in too much pain to eat, however, and I offered to get him some aspirin.

  Kai threw off the blanket and moved to Rémy’s side. “Let me help.” He held out his hand toward Rémy’s ribs.

  “Kai, honey, you need to rest,” I objected.

  “I’m fine. Please,” he insisted.

  Rémy reluctantly lifted his shirt and hissed as Kai placed his hand over the red, bruised area. It seemed to cause both of them pain, judging by the grimaces on their faces. It took longer than Jack or Mina’s healings and I worried that Kai wasn’t up to it. He finally gave a shudder and pulled his hand away.

  Rémy caught him before he fell and carried him back to the sofa. “Ally, bring him some more juice, please.”

  I brought the juice and sat beside the little boy as he drank. “Kai, you need to rest. No more healing tonight, okay?”

  “I’ll be fine. Bones are harder to heal.”

  “No kidding,” said Rémy. “Be glad you were unconscious, Jack.” He rested his hand on Kai’s head. “Thank you, little one. You saved me many weeks of pain. But you feel the pain, don’t you? You take it into yourself somehow.”

  Kai nodded and I pulled him into my arms again. Where did this latent maternal instinct come from?

  Brian came in a few minutes later and told us that the police were treating the scene as some sort of possible gang violence. Neither Luc nor the other man who had fallen had any sort of identification on them and all of the others had disappeared. He said there didn’t appear to be any sign of our presence specifically, just a general appearance of some sort of activity. He would do his best to make sure the case didn’t get a lot of time or attention. “Now, I need you all to tell me what the hell really happened tonight.”

  I began the story, relating how the black sedan had been waiting for me after school and how I had listened to Megan on the phone. “How did you know where to find me?” I asked Jack and Rémy. “They smashed my phone so I know you weren’t able to track the GPS. We thought he would try to grab me here at the house.”

  “I had one of my friends watching you every second I couldn’t,” Jack said. “There’s no way I was going to trust your safety to Rémy’s lame-ass plan. He called me the second you got in that car and followed you to the rail yards. We got there just a few minutes after you.”

  “We decided I would go in first.” Rémy took over the story. “They were waiting for me, just inside the door. God, I was wrong about everything.” He dropped his head into his hands.

  “I followed at a distance and Mina waited outside,” Jack explained.

  “What happened to you?” I asked Mina. “You were bleeding.”

  “I was waiting outside, like Rémy ordered. I wasn’t happy about it and had just decided to find everyone when the door flew open, right into my head. It knocked me down and I nearly passed out for a minute. I saw a guy running away, but I was too dazed to do anything about it.”

  “That must have been the one who stabbed you,” Rémy said to Jack.

  “Yeah, I remember that part. When Ally blasted Luc, I lost my focus for a second. The guy I was fighting pulled a knife and nearly gutted me. That’s the last thing I remember.”

  “You were stabbed?” Brian nearly yelled. “Where? Why aren’t—”

  “Brian,” I interrupted. “You should probably sit down for this next part. You aren’t going to like it.” He sat as I told him, as gently as possible, about how Kai had healed Jack, then Mina, and finally Rémy a few minutes ago. He paled noticeably as he glanced over at the little boy sitting on the couch next to Megan.

  “Oh, my God,” he mumbled.

  I was about to answer, to try to offer some sort of comfort, when the air in the room began to crackle with energy. I looked around, startled, and saw Rémy rise to his feet, his eyes glazed over, and a visible aura of energy surrounding his body.

  “This is the first prophecy of the new age. The power of the three is now complete. The Oracle is now ascended. The former age will fade away. The Light has overcome, but the Darkness is not defeated. The child is the key.”

  No one said a word; we just stared at Rémy. The glow faded and his eyes returned to normal. Mina finally launched herself into his arms and they held each other tightly. “You are the Oracle,” she whispered.

  “I am,” he whispered back.

  “I need to write it down,” I murmured. “I hope I remember what he said.” I got up to find a pen and pencil.

  “Don’t worry, cherié,” Rémy said. “I heard it. I remember what I said.”

  “Well, that’s different. Kate never knows what she says,” I mused. “You heard what you said and you remember?”

  He nodded. “I have a feeling everything will be different this time.” His phone rang as he spoke. “That’s Grandmére,” he said without looking. “She knows.”

  While he talked to his grandmother, I poured a couple fingers of whiskey for my poor stepfather, who was valiantly trying to deal with the events of the evening. He drank a sip or two but then set it aside, saying he needed to drive home.

  “I’m going to go home and try to forget all this,” he said as he gestured around the room. “For God’s sake. I have no idea what I’m going to do about my report.” He hugged me and kissed my forehead. “Are you going to be okay, Ally? This is all just crazy.”

  “Yeah, I’ll be fine. I’m used to crazy. Go home, Brian. Mom and Eli need you.”

  Later that night, after Brian had returned home to my mother and my brother, after Rémy and Mina had gone back across the street to their home to revel in the news of their impending parenthood and try to digest the fact that Rémy was the Oracle, after Megan was tucked in her bed and Kai was settled in the guest room, Jack and I held each other in the dark as we lay in bed.

  “Is it really over, Jack?”

  I felt him nod. “Please, God. Ally, how do you feel about not being the Oracle? Are you okay with it?”

  I pulled away, leaning on my elbow and looking deeply into his beautiful eyes. “I can’t even begin to express how relieved I am. Rémy will be a much better Oracle than I ever would have been. Jack, we can have a normal life.” I kissed him. “Well, at least a semi-normal life. I’m still psychic.”

  He laughed and pulled me to lie on top of him. “I’m okay with that, crazy psychic girl.” He kissed me, brushing my hair behind my ears. “And there is the whole issue of acquiring another kid tonight. Rémy and Mina are going to have a baby, but we’ve suddenly got two kids. I have a feeling he’s going to be with us permanently.”

  “Look who’s psychic now. I couldn’t possibly be any more in love with you than I am at this
moment,” I whispered against his lips. “I think Kai needs us.”

  “Yeah, probably. He and Megan sure have some kind of connection, huh?”

  “Yeah, they sure do. I’m not sure how I feel about it.”

  “Me neither. It kind of gives me the creeps, to tell you the truth,” he said.

  “Yet you opened our home to him anyway. That’s why I love you.” I kissed him, running my hands across the smooth skin of his stomach where, a few hours ago, a knife wound had nearly taken his life. I curled against him and we both fell asleep.

  ***

  I woke up early Saturday morning and checked on the kids on my way to the kitchen. I had a moment of panic when I found Megan’s bed empty, but managed to keep my cool while I checked on Kai. He was still sound asleep, as were Megan and Sodapop, who were curled up at the end of his bed, the dog snoring loudly. I rolled my eyes and let them sleep. I would need to have a talk with Meg about it at some point in the near future, but for now I left them alone.

  Rémy let himself in the back door as I was making coffee. He walked straight to me and pulled me into his arms, hugging me tightly. “Oh, my God, Ally. It’s over. Finally.”

  I hugged him back, knowing how difficult this last year had been for him as he worked vainly to find out where Luc was while worrying about trying to keep Mina and me safe. “It is, but I have a feeling there is a bunch of new stuff on the horizon. Your prophecy certainly seemed to intimate as much.”

  “Damn prophecy,” he groused. “They’re never much good, are they? Just vague, threatening crap.”

  I laughed. “You sound like me. Hey, I haven’t had a chance to congratulate you yet, Papa. How is the little mama doing?”

  He sighed in a delirious sort of way. “Ah, she is perfect. She’s not feeling terribly well this morning, though. I was actually hoping you might have some crackers I could take to her.”