Always

by Jude Deveraux

  Darci would never forget the look on the woman’s face when she realized that she was going to die. It was surprise more than anything else. She had begun to think that she couldn’t be defeated; she’d begun to think she was immortal.

  In the last second, the witch opened her arms as though to embrace all the hate that she had caused, and the spirits around her clasped her to them, covering her, making her human body part of their bodiless spirits.

  Darci thought she was used to spirits and what other people thought was strange, but even Darci’s eyes widened when she saw the spirits pull the witch’s soul from her body and lift it out. They took it away to a place that Darci didn’t want to see, and when the spirit was gone, the witch’s old body collapsed to the floor, dead.

  For a moment, Darci opened her eyes and looked around her. It was quiet in the tunnels. To her right was the cage full of children, sleeping now, their auras once again with them, auras that were now blue and green, one creative little fellow’s yellow, one daredevil’s aura pink and red.

  Smiling, Darci thought how good it was to see them well and healthy once again. She also thought how good she felt, a bit tired but not much. Turning slowly, she looked at the black end of the tunnel where she’d seen the angel. Or had she? Had she really and truly seen an angel? The angel? And what was it he’d said? At the moment she couldn’t remember.

  I must find Adam, she thought, then turned as though she meant to walk away. But she didn’t take a step before she collapsed on the floor, and that’s where Adam found her hours later.

  When she awoke, she was in a hospital and Adam and many of his family were there. Even her mother was there, which surprised her more than everything else that had happened. Seeing an angel was more normal than seeing her beautiful mother at her bedside. And Darci was told that her mother had risked her life to save her.

  Now, smiling, Darci came out of her trance of memory and was horrified to realize that she hadn’t been protecting Jack. The man stalking him was very close to him. Jack! she said in her mind, wanting to warn him, but now that Millie’s spirit was no longer around him she couldn’t talk to him with her mind. Not directly anyway, not with words, and not quickly. She knew that if she took her time she could send him thoughts, but the ability to actually talk between minds was something she shared only with her husband. And she couldn’t paralyze the man, for he was too far away.

  She knew that there was only one way to help Jack and that was the human way. Standing up, she put her head back and gave a scream that she knew would carry through the forest.

  She felt Jack turn, felt that he had stopped his assailant, but in the next minute a shot rang out. Darci felt a burning pain in her shoulder and thought, My goodness, I’ve been shot.

  In the next second she couldn’t see or hear anything.

  “Don’t die on me now, baby sister,” Jack said as he bent over her, gently smacking her cheeks. “Wake up, honey.”

  “I’m all right. I’m sorry. I didn’t do what I was supposed to do.”

  “As far as I know, you haven’t done what you were supposed to do since the day I met you. Tell me, in your whole life, have you ever done what you were supposed to do?”

  She tried to sit up, but Jack pushed her back down to the damp ground. “Where are they?” she asked.

  “Don’t you know? I was hoping you’d be able to tell me. I took two of them out, but there’s another one around. Tell me where they are.”

  “I don’t know,” Darci said, holding onto the front of Jack’s leather jacket. “I can’t feel anything. This can’t be happening to me again. What year is it?”

  “Ssssh,” Jack said, ducking down to lie flat beside her. “I heard something.”

  For a moment they lay in silence, listening, but there was nothing they could hear over the gentle rain.

  “Listen to me and don’t argue. I’ve got to get both of us out of this. There’s something really wrong about all of this and I mean to find out what it is.”

  “Jack,” Darci said softly, “are you hurt?”

  “Just a little. Probably less than you are, but it’s enough that I’d like to get out of here.”

  “Help me up and we’ll go to the car.”

  “Can’t. They took it. I saw them drive off in it about thirty minutes ago.”

  “How long was I out?”

  “About an hour. I didn’t want to wake you as long as you were dry, but the rain has seeped in under even this monster tree, so we’ve got to move.”

  “Jack, contact the FBI. Greg would be here in minutes.”

  He acted as though she hadn’t spoken. “I haven’t heard anything since they took off in my car. Listen to me and this time I want you to obey me. I’m going to carry you to a shed that’s behind the cabin and leave you there.”

  “Leave me! Then what do you do?”

  “What I came here to do: Find my father.”

  When Darci moved, she felt the pain in her shoulder, but she didn’t want to look at the wound. If it was bad she feared she wouldn’t have the courage to go on. “I’m going with you. There’s someone else here. I can feel him.”

  “Sure it’s a ‘him’?”

  “Yes. Very male and powerful energy.”

  “That’s got to be dear ol’ dad,” Jack said with a smile that held a trace of pride in it. “Can you stand up? I’m going to put you over my shoulder and carry you that way. I’m afraid that my left arm is out of commission for the moment.”

  “Jack, please…” Darci began as he helped her stand. “I can walk. I can—”

  She broke off when Jack knelt and put his shoulder into her stomach. The next second she was being carried through the forest. Since she was touching him, she could feel some of what he’d just been through when fighting off the three men. Without any help from me, Darci thought in disgust.

  “Jack, I really am sorry,” she said against his back.

  “Save it for later.” Moments later he stopped at a little toolshed in the back of the cabin she’d only seen from a distance.

  “There’s only one man in there,” she said as he set her down. “And he’s in no danger. And I no longer feel any danger around here. Not to you and certainly not to the man inside.”

  “Nice try, Mrs. Montgomery,” Jack said, “but I think I’ll do it my way.”

  “Okay,” Darci said, looking at him hard and willing him to not be aware that she was going to be right behind him. “I’ll just wait for you to come back and get me,” she said demurely, again willing him to believe her. She’d let him down once, so she wasn’t going to let him down again.

  Jack set off toward the back of the cabin, through tall weeds and piles of winter logs. Not far behind him, Darci walked slowly, being careful not to move her arm. It hurt, but she willed herself to ignore the pain.

  When Jack reached the back door to the cabin, he plastered himself against the wall, gun drawn, then grimaced when he saw Darci across from him. He pointed at her, meaning for her to stay where she was.

  Jack silently tried the latch of the door; it was unlocked. Raising his fingers to Darci, he counted to three, then grabbed the latch and flung the door open. A yard behind him was Darci.

  Inside, it was an ordinary-looking cabin, with the requisite pine furniture and a stone fireplace on the far wall. Sitting in the middle of the room was a man with a newspaper before him. They could see his profile and he didn’t look up when Jack burst in with his gun drawn.

  “There’s hot coffee in the kitchen,” the man said in a deep voice. “And hot chocolate. Help yourself.”

  “Mr. Hallbrooke,” Jack said in a very official voice. “I’m FBI agent Jack Ainsley, and I have come here to rescue you.”

  The man turned a page of his newspaper, but he didn’t look at Jack. “Don’t be ridiculous, John. You’re my son and I brought you here.”

  Before Jack could reply, Darci said, “There’s a car coming.”

  The man turned another page of the newspaper
. “I can assure you that it’s safe. They’re my men.”

  In the next moment they heard a car skid to a stop just outside, and seconds later the front door of the cabin burst open. Two men rushed in, one of them with his arm in a sling that looked to have been made from a T-shirt, the other one with a gun drawn—and aimed at Jack’s head.

  “We have him, sir,” the man with the gun said.

  At that, the man in the chair gave a bit of a laugh, slowly and neatly folded his newspaper, put it on the table beside the chair, then turned and looked at Jack and Darci.

  While this was going on, Darci took the opportunity to freeze the two men across the room into place. She even froze their lips so they couldn’t speak. Maybe she’d be able to make up to Jack for her earlier failure.

  “Is this one of your games?” Jack asked his father, hostility in his voice.

  “Is it a game to want to see my only child every now and then?” the man asked.

  Darci was concentrating on holding the two men in place, but she managed to sneak a look at Mr. Hallbrooke and saw that he looked very much like Jack had before his surgery. He wasn’t a handsome man, but he was a powerful one. He had an aura that was so solid it could have been made out of bricks. And it was green, the color of money.

  “Your only child?” Jack said, his voice rising in anger. “Did you care when your only child was killed?”

  “I would have, yes,” Mr. Hallbrooke said calmly, “if my child had been killed. You don’t think that I was told the same lie as the public was, do you, John? Surely you must have guessed who paid for your expensive plastic surgery. You don’t think that the U.S. government brought in the finest surgical team ever assembled, do you?”

  Darci could feel Jack’s temper rising. She couldn’t turn enough to see his aura, but she was sure it was now shooting little flames of red and yellow. “Could those men leave now?” she asked tiredly. “Holding them is beginning to give me a headache.”

  She had the satisfaction of feeling John Barrett Hallbrooke the second turn his full attention onto her.

  “Get those bozos out of here!” Jack yelled at his father.

  “You may go,” Mr. Hallbrooke said over his shoulder, then turned in surprise when the men didn’t obey him immediately. For several moments he stood there looking at them. Their eyes were the only things they could move and they were nearly shouting with them.

  “Darci,” Jack said at last. “Please let the men go.”

  With a sigh of relief, Darci released the two men. They gave her a look she’d seen too many times, then ran out the door.

  Jack was glaring at his father, and Mr. Hallbrooke was staring at Darci as though he wanted to put her in a jar and study her.

  “Mind if I have some of that chocolate?” she asked. When neither man answered, she went across the room to the little kitchen and helped herself. When she looked back, neither man had moved. So much for having removed Jack’s anger, she thought. On the counter was a box of pastries and she helped herself.

  While she ate and drank, she did her best to calm both men down. For all that Mr. Hallbrooke seemed disconnected and calm, she could feel that he was very excited. Why? she wondered, then smiled. He was excited at seeing his son again.

  Her pastry finished, Darci refilled her cup and went back into the living room. “Could one of you help me get this jacket off?”

  Angrily, Jack started to snatch the jacket from her, but when she yelped in pain, he stopped.

  “If you’ve hurt her mind,” Jack said to his father, anger shooting out of him, “I’ll see that you answer for it.”

  Puzzled, Mr. Hallbrooke looked from one to the other. “Her mind?” He looked at Darci, now sitting on the couch. “What are you?”

  “The usual,” she said, waving her cup as though to say she wasn’t any different than anyone else.

  “I must say, John, that I wasn’t told you were working with…with…” He didn’t seem to have a label for Darci.

  Jack turned to his father. “You want to tell me what this is all about? Why have you wasted my time, and the time and money of the bureau?”

  “Since when did you become conscientious? Coffee?”

  Darci concentrated on Jack, telling him to sit down and talk, and to stop acting like a rebellious schoolboy, but his aura had begun to weaken and his face was turning pale. “Jack?” she asked. “Are you all right?”

  She saw that there was a small pool of blood on the floor under Jack’s left hand. When she looked up at Mr. Hallbrooke he was also looking at the blood. Externally, he didn’t move, but his aura shot out around him in alarm. Well, she thought, you big fat liar. You act like you don’t care, but you’re mad about your son, aren’t you? You probably loved it every time he told you off.

  Darci went to Jack and helped him sit down. She sent the thought to his father to get help, but he was already on his cell phone.

  “I’m fine,” Jack said, “just a little weak. Give me a minute and I’ll be all right.”

  Darci glared up at Mr. Hallbrooke. “You meant to play a joke but those bullets were real,” she said.

  “They weren’t meant to be,” Mr. Hallbrooke said softly, and Darci could see the anger under his cool exterior. Had he meant for the men to use rubber bullets? Tranquilizers? Why had they disobeyed?

  As Darci thought these questions, she was sure that everything in her life now had a reason. If she and Jack had been shot with real bullets, then that was what was meant to happen. The words “blood sacrifice” came into her head, making her shiver. She put her mind back onto the matter at hand.

  Mr. Hallbrooke calmed down and looked from one to the other, seeming to wonder what they were to each other. “Help is coming.”

  Suddenly, his face lit up as he looked at Darci. “I know who you are. You’re the—”

  “Say it and you’ll never see me again,” Jack said.

  “I wouldn’t demean myself by repeating something from a tabloid, if that’s what you mean.” He looked back at Darci. “You’re the one who helps the FBI, aren’t you? Have you found your husband yet?”

  “No,” she said, “but I have some leads. Mr. Hallbrooke, you don’t happen to have your pocket watch with you, do you?”

  “Yes, of course I do.” He reached into his pocket and pulled out the watch. He wasn’t wearing sweats or corduroy like most city people who spend time in the country, but had on a well-tailored tweed suit, complete with necktie.

  Taking the watch, Darci held up the red cabochon jewel for Jack to see. “Think it’ll fit?”

  “Perfectly.”

  “Might I ask what that will fit?” Mr. Hallbrooke asked.

  Jack was trying to hide his pain, but Darci could tell he was feeling faint from it. Maybe she shouldn’t try to calm him down. “Where the hell did you get all those things in that hidden room?” he half yelled at his father.

  “Hidden room?” Mr. Hallbrooke asked, sitting down on the couch across from Jack. For the first time he looked bewildered, not in control of the situation. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “The room off your bedroom,” Darci said, removing the jewel, then handing the watch back to him.

  “Ah,” Mr. Hallbrooke said, sounding just like Jack. His lips curved into what might possibly be called a smile. “That was there when I bought the house. The electricians doing the rewiring found the room. I have no idea what it was for or what the things inside it are. I bought the house and contents from the previous owner’s heirs.”

  “And that?” Jack asked, nodding toward the jewel.

  “I liked it, so I put it on my watch. Would you mind telling me what this is all about?”

  Darci started to answer but the sound of a helicopter stopped her. Mr. Hallbrooke hadn’t bothered with an ambulance finding its way to the cabin; he’d called for a chopper.

  “I think we should discuss all this later,” Mr. Hallbrooke said, standing up.

  Jack made a lunge to take the jewel from Da
rci, but she pulled it away. “After you get patched up,” she whispered.

  Mr. Hallbrooke went out the front door to the helicopter.

  “You’re awfully calm about this,” Jack said, putting his arm around her shoulders as she helped him to stand up.

  “One of us has to stay sane and since you’re making a fool of yourself—”

  “Excuse me?” Jack said. “A fool, did you say? Let’s see, I just got shot trying to rescue a man who didn’t need rescuing in the first place. And what about those men I shot? Did they deserve that, no matter how much my father pays them? And what about you? How’s your shoulder?”

  “Fine,” she said, then reached inside her jacket and pulled out the Touch of God. “I brought it just in case we needed it. I stuck it in my upper pocket and I’m pretty much well.”

  “Give it to me,” Jack demanded, but Darci pulled it back. Jack looked hurt that she wouldn’t give him the healing stone.

  They were at the door now and the helicopter was making so much noise that they could barely hear each other. Mr. Hallbrooke was talking to the pilot, who was nodding in agreement.

  “Jack!” Darci yelled up at him. “Everything that’s happened has led us to something else, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “So I think you need to go to the hospital. If you’re healed, you won’t need to go. And, besides, your father has some things he wants to say to you.”

  “Such as?” Jack asked, practically sneering.

  “He’s tired and he wants you to work with him.”

  “You’re crazy.”

  “He loves you.”

  “You’re insane.”

  Darci saw that Mr. Hallbrooke was coming toward them, so she spoke rapidly. “Trust me. I know that your going to the hospital with him is important. Stay with him. He’s dying to tell you something, or offer you something. He did all this kidnapping because he knew you wouldn’t come to him unless you were forced to do so. Listen to him.”

  Jack was looking skeptical, but Darci stood on tiptoe and kissed his cheek. “Do it for me, big brother? Can you trust me on this? I’ll go to the hospital in a couple of days and you’ll have a miraculous healing, but for right now you need to be the wounded hero.”