Tempted (9 page)

She turned the page to another series of photos. “The Bennett men were all Guardians, going back as far as I’ve been able to trace. Interestingly, every one of them was also in military service and was involved in every great war this country’s ever seen; the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, Vietnam, Dessert Storm, Iraq. You name it, they were there.”

“
Why didn’t I know about this? How is it that I didn’t discover this until my thirties?”

“
It happens differently for everyone,” said Sarah. “In most cases, a monumental or very personal event brings a person’s powers to their awareness. Whatever your abilities are, you’ve possessed them your entire life. You may have even used them without realizing it. Something happened to bring it to the surface, Jackson.”

“
Think about it son,” Vivian said softly, setting the album aside and clasping his hand. “Remember what you told me about that day in the dessert? You described everything with such detail, even though there was so much chaos. Why do you think that is?”

Sarah could feel Jackson racking his brain for the answer. She also felt his frustration and his fear. Her own pulse beat frantically in time with his.

Suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. She heard Jackson’s rasps as he leaped up from the couch, his hands pulling wildly at the collar of his shirt. He stepped over the coffee table and fell against the wall opposite the couch. He sank down to the floor, burying his face in his hands.

“
It was like time had stopped,” he said, his voice a raspy whisper. “I could see every bullet as it flew past, and every speck of dust that was kicked up. Everything around me seemed suspended and I was moving through it like a dream and I…”

His voice caught in his throat and he shook his head.

“
Time-bending,” Sarah said as it dawned on her. Excitement welled up in her as she stood and moved to kneel in front of him. “That’s your gift Jackson! I know of Guardians that can speed or slow time. That has to be it!”

“
You were always the fastest kid in the neighborhood,” said Vivian from behind her. “Seemed like no one could catch you once you got going. Those kids would probably whoop your behind if they knew you were cheating by using your powers. Of course, you didn’t realize what you were doing.”

“
All that carnage,” Jackson whispered, his eyes unfocused and glassy. “All that death around me, and I escaped it. Time slowed all around me like a dream.”

“
Yes,” Sarah said softly, inching closer to him on the floor. She extended her hand toward him. “Yes, Jackson. It was your gift. It saved you.”

As her hand came to rest on his shoulder, Jackson shoved her away and leaped to his feet. Anger, raw and jagged, ripped through her, projected from his turbulent eyes.

“
What, am I supposed to be grateful for that? I’m supposed to thank your precious God for saving me and letting those other men die?”

“
Jackson,” said Vivian calmly. “Everything has a reason. Everything that happened-“

“
Don’t talk to me about reason,” Jackson hissed. “There is no reason or rationalization for this. You knew about all of this, and you never told me! You probably even knew that this was going to happen to me and you didn’t do a damn thing about it!”

Vivian lowered her eyes and fell silent. Sarah could feel her guilt over having kept so much from Jackson. The Oracle had probably foreseen a lot of things. It was a heavy burden to bear.

“
And you,” Jackson turned on Sarah, his index finger extended accusingly. “You can keep your damned Guardianship, because I don’t want it. You tell your
Father
that I don’t want any of his gifts. Give them to someone else.”

Before anyone could interject, Jackson turned his back on them and ran for the door. The sound of it slamming reverberated through the room, vibrating Sarah’s insides.

Chapter 11: Rain

Jackson felt guilty for leaving Sarah at his grandmother’s house. Even though he’d reminded himself several times that she was an angel that could sprout wings at her leisure, he still felt terrible.

He could barely remember the subway ride home. He’d stood in the train, staring blankly ahead, his mind in another place and time.

It was the worst possible explanation for everything he had been through, and it made him sick to his stomach. Watching men fall around him, dropped by bullets and ripped apart by explosions, was something that would haunt his dreams forever. The slow-moving scenes played out in his mind like some sort of demented theater show. Even now, as he stood on the fire escape, watching the lightning that flashed behind gray clouds, he could see it like he was still there. He could hear every sound, feel every emotion all over again in startling detail…

All had grown silent. The shots and explosions had stopped seconds ago. The Iraqis probably through he was dead. God help him if they decided to descend the ridge and rifle through the carnage.

Jackson leaned against the side of the only remaining Humvee, cradling what was left of Lieutenant Rawls in his arms. While giving the Iraqi’s a taste of the 50 caliber machine gun, the lieutenant had been struck in the chest by a flying mortar. The mortar had sent him sprawling to the ground.

He trembled in Jackson’s arms as he struggled to breathe. Blood oozed from his ears and the corners of his mouth. It stained Jackson’s hands as he applied pressure to the gaping hole in Rawls’ stomach.

“
That chopper…won’t land until we’re…all clear Bennett,” Rawls gasped between short, sharp breaths. “You gotta finish ‘em.”

Jackson looked to his left where the hollowed, smoking shells of the other Humvees lay crumpled in the desert sand. His stomach rolled as his eyes moved over what was left of Smith, Thompson, Doc, and Jones.

He’d been the only one to see that RPG round coming. He’d been the only one to move before it had struck, taking out the Humvee containing Reedley, Richards, and Scott. The other four had been taken out by a barrage of bullets and mortars as Jackson scrambled toward the fourth Humvee, where he now sat cowering with Lieutenant Rawls in his arms.

“
I have to keep pressure on this wound,” Jackson said, even as a fresh wave of blood spurted from the wound. Rawls’ body shook with laughter that quickly turned into a sputtered cough as he spat blood into the sand.

“
Goddamnit Bennett, we both know I’m going to die. Get your ass up in that turret and blast those ragheads to kingdom come so that chopper can land and get you out of here.”

Tears filled Jackson’s eyes and his throat nearly closed with the force of his grief. “No sir,” said Jackson, shaking his head furiously from side to side. “I will not. Too many men have died today, and I won’t let you be next.”

Rawls smiled, gifting Jackson with the gruesome sight of his blood-stained teeth. “You always were a defiant one, Bennett. But you’ve got a lot goin’ for you. When you get out of here, get your Purple Heart and battlefield promotion, you’re going to make one hell of a Staff Sergeant.”

“
I want you to be the one to pin me, sir,” Jackson said, continuing to put pressure on the wound. “I want you to be there.”

Rawls laughed again, coughing up another mouthful of blood. He placed his limp hand over Jackson’s. “Let go, son. Get up there and kick some ass. That’s a freakin’ order.”

Seconds later, Rawls was gone.

Rage burst through Jackson’s body, red, raw and ugly. In his mind he could see the dismembered body parts and pink mist; all that remained of his battle brothers. He gently laid Lieutenant Rawls’ body in the sand and tossed his M4 rifle aside.

He stood, unafraid, and leaped up into the Humvee’s turret. Gunshots blasted from the top of the ridge where the Iraqi’s resumed their fire, determined to squelch the last of the resistance against them.

Jackson aimed the 50 caliber machine gun at his enemy and opened fire…

Jackson shook himself back into reality at the sight of a white light streaking across the sky. A shooting star. Sarah.

As it neared, he couldn’t deny the urge to meet her on the roof. Not only did he owe her a serious apology, but he just knew that seeing her face would make everything else seem distant. He wasn’t sure how it had happened, but somehow Sarah had become a lifeline, a symbol of hope for his life. She represented goodness and faith and everything that was right in the world. Being near her was like coming up for air after being trapped in a dark cave.

Raindrops plopped onto his head and shoulders as he stepped onto the roof. Sarah stood a few feet away from him, her palms stretched out to catch the water drops. Her eyes were closed and her face was tilted back to the cloudy sky. Jackson watched, his jaw slack, as she twirled in a slow circle, extending her arms to embrace the coming storm.

His heart pounded in his chest, and his conscience nagged him for intruding on her private moment. Yet he couldn’t look away from her. She looked like the angel she truly was, bathed in moonlight, her arms and legs bare in the thin sundress she was wearing, her face tilted to the sky. His stomach clenched and his blood raced. He took a step toward her.

She opened her eyes and turned toward him slowly, lowering her arms. As she moved toward him, he felt time slowing around him, and realized he’d felt this sensation before so many times. He’d never bothered to pay attention to it, chalking it up to childish fantasy on his part, blaming it on too many slow-motion filled action movies. He would never have attributed it to the power he'd always possessed. A power he'd never known he had.

But as Sarah walked toward him through the rain, he soaked in every detail. It was as if his mind wanted to remember everything; the flow of her dress’ skirt around her knees as the breeze tugged at it and the curling sable waves made damp by the rain, every water drop that rolled down her face. Every detail stood out in sharp clarity, until nothing else existed for him.

“
I’m so sorry,” she said, breaking the silence. Her wide eyes were filled with tears that mingled with the rain running down her face.

“
No,” he interjected, reaching up to grasp her upper arms gently. “I’m the one who should be sorry. I took my fears out on you, and you didn’t deserve that. You didn’t ask for this job, and you sure as hell didn’t ask for me. I told you to run, to leave me alone, but you stayed. No one stays for me, Sarah. No one ever stays.”

“
Your father…” she trailed off lowering her eyes. “I know who he is.”

Jackson’s heart dropped into his stomach. “You do?”

She nodded. “After you left, Vivian told me all about him. He left your mother because he was charged with guarding one of the few portals between earth and hell. He knew he would be putting you and your mother in harm’s way if he stayed. Guarding portals is a dangerous job. There are Oracles, demons, and even some humans who are constantly searching for them. They would not hesitate to hurt the family or friends of a Guardian in order to get what they want.”

Jackson felt his head spinning with the sheer magnitude of what he was hearing. All this time he’d thought his father was an arrogant, heartless bastard. He’d never known anything about him beyond the day he left. While he was still hurt and angry at his father’s abandonment, he couldn’t help but feel pity for him. Much like Jackson, he’d stood on the precipice, facing a choice that could change his life forever. It had cost him his family, but contributed to a greater good beyond anything Jackson could have ever fathomed.

“
Did you know that Vivian raised me?”

She shook her head, a frown marring her forehead. “No. What happened to your mother?”

“
She ran off with some boyfriend of hers a few months after my father left. His leaving changed her, and she never had time for anything but herself after. I don’t think she knew about my father’s assignment.”

“
Jackson, I-“

“
People have been leaving me my whole life, Sarah,” he said. He wasn’t sure why he was saying these things to her. He only knew that it felt right, even good to share it with her. It was a part of him he’d never even shared with Rochelle. “I do things to chase people away.”

“
No!” she protested, stepping more fully into the circle of his arms. Her hands reached up to his face and she forced him to look down into her eyes. “No, Jackson. You didn’t chase your parents away. They made their own decisions.”

“
Rochelle,” he said with a half-hearted shrug. “I was so broken after Iraq that I chased her away too. And now I’m doing the same thing to little Jack that my father did to me.”

“
No,” she said again, shaking her head. Her wet waves clung to her face and neck. “You are not alone Jackson, and you are not broken. You have a calling now, a purpose. Accept what you’ve been offered and fulfill your destiny. You don’t have to make the same choices your parents did. You don’t have to be afraid or run or abandon the people in your life.”

“
I just don’t want-“

Her grip tightened on his face, silencing him. “You will not have to do this alone, Jackson. That’s why I’m here. I won’t leave until I’ve seen this through. I don’t care how much quicksand you think you’re standing on, I won’t abandon you.”