A Chance for Charity (The Immortal Ones) (24 page)

“
Ready to run? It’s
becoming a blizzard out there,” I said, as Link parked the
SUV.

“
One, two, three, go,” Link
counted, and we simultaneously exited the vehicle and ran for the
stairs.

By the time we sprinted the short distance
to his apartment door, our clothing and hair were covered in
snow.

“
Hurry and open the door,”
I playfully scolded Link as he fumbled with the keys. I stomped
under the eve, trying to rid my boots of their white coating. I
shook my hands in my hair and brushed off my shoulders and arms.
“It’s everywhere,” I giggled pushing him through the now open
door.

The first thing I heard was the growl of a
dog. The dog... the ‘clone dog’... was right in front of us. Why
hadn’t I been paying better attention? Why didn’t I hear movement
in the apartment before we got to the door? Stupid... Stupid...

“
Welcome home,” Leviticus
Lord purred from where he stood. He had a gun in his right hand. It
was aimed at Link’s chest. “Rowan, heel,” he told the dog in a
sarcastic low tone.

“
What do you want?” I
hissed at him.

“
Oh, I think you know
that,” he replied. “I want you and your kind wiped off the face of
the earth. Thank you for making my job a little easier. I was just
searching for clues and you come walking through the door. Divine
intervention I think,” Leviticus sneered.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a
cell phone, flipped it open, dialed, and waited. All the while,
Rowan the dog kept a watchful eye on Link and me. Rowan continued
to growl while he paced back and forth, across the floor, in front
of us.

“
Zeek, I’ve come into a bit
of luck it seems. The young one and her blasphemous boyfriend have
walked into the apartment,” he spoke into the phone, then paused,
listening to his brother. “I’ll meet you there,” he finished and
slid the phone back in his pocket.

“
What do you plan to do
with us?” Link asked.

“
I plan to kill her and her
family. If you repent your sinful ways, I just might spare your
life. Don’t you know you are in the presence of evil?” Leviticus
cried.

“
I’m staring at the face of
evil right now,” Link spat out his answer.

“
Well I guess you’ve made
your choice then, haven’t you?”

“
I guess I
have.”

“
No, Link, do whatever he
says. Save yourself,” I pleaded.

“
You’re not getting rid of
me. I’ve made my choice,” he murmured softly in my ear.

I composed my face, making it devoid of
emotion. I spoke in a smooth, clear voice. “Let the boy go. He
knows nothing. I simply used him, to pass the time here in this
dull town,” I said, hoping Leviticus would accept my lie.

“
If you have formed no
attachment to him them you wouldn’t mind my using him for target
practice later,” he sneered.

“
I hate to see innocent
humans suffer,” I replied.

“
Ah, but your displeasure
is my delight,” he smirked. “Let’s go!”

He waved his gun in the air, indicating that
we should walk out first. The dog followed close at our heels and
Levi exited after that.

“
We’ll use your vehicle, I
think. The black one, isn’t it? Get in,” the evil bald man
commanded.

Evil bald man...
Wow that’s so cliché!
I
found myself thinking as he pushed Link into the driver’s seat.
Rowan hopped up on Link’s lap and then moved over to the passenger
seat. Levi then seized my arm, pushed the gun to my temple, and
directed me into the back with him.

“
A bullet to the brain
would take awhile to repair, wouldn’t it?” he said, once the
vehicle doors were securely shut. “Start the engine. Get on
Colorado and head east, all the way through town, and past the
mine. We’ll meet the brothers there,” Levi ordered.

“
That’s toward Bridal Veil
Falls,” Link replied.

“
Why yes it is. Now start
driving, or your aberrant girlfriend here will find out exactly how
long it takes her brain to repair itself after a bullet has been
rattling around in her skull. We could time it, just for fun,” he
hissed. “I did it once, you know, timed it... on a woman Zeek and I
tracked to Mexico City. It took her exactly forty-seven minutes to
open her eyes again... for the last time. That was my first
Immortal kill, twenty years ago. You’ll be my second,” he leered at
me. “Zeek got the last one. It’s my turn now.”

Link pulled the car out, onto Colorado
Avenue, and headed east as he was told. I was trying to figure out
a way to escape this lunatic without having Link come to harm.
Nothing was coming to me.

My phone started buzzing in my back pocket.
The wind and snow whipping around the vehicle as we drove created
enough external noise that Levi didn’t notice. I hadn’t texted when
we arrived at Link’s apartment. The others would figure out that we
were in trouble, they had to. But how long would it take for them
to come looking?

Charity, where are
you?
I heard Marcus’s voice in my
head.

Stupid girl, I told you to
text me.
I heard it again, as clear as if
he were sitting right beside me.

Marcus
, I screamed in my head.
Marcus, can
you hear me?
Nothing, I heard nothing. My
mind was playing tricks on me. I was a fool to hope that help would
be coming.

Link crept along Colorado. Visibility was
low. If I was having a hard time seeing the road ahead, then it was
almost impossible for his mortal eyes. We rode in silence. Rowan
the dog, whined and growled every so often to make his presence
known.

Link couldn’t die because of me.

I pressed my forehead against the window.
“Figure out a way to get him out of here,” I softly whispered to
myself.

As soon as we passed the mine, Link came to
a stop. I looked out the front windshield and saw two sets of
headlights dimly illuminating the snow in front of us. The lights
didn’t belong to a regular vehicle. I could just barely make out
the form. They were small. They were snowmobiles.

Ezekiel was standing outside in the snow,
right next to a matching pair of snowmobiles.

“
Get out.” Levi pushed the
gun against my temple and reached across my lap to open the
door.

Link stepped out of the SUV with the dog
close behind.

Ezekiel stood directly in front of us,
eerily still, in the whirlwind that was happening around him.
Sitting in the snow, next to Ezekiel Lord, was a mountain lion.

The cat purred loudly nodding its head to
the dog. They were communicating somehow, the dog and the mountain
lion. It was unnatural – like me. I looked at the faces of these
two animals... at their eyes. Their eyes were not canine or feline
– they were human. The Lord brothers had brought a pair of
Shape-Shifters to the party.

As soon as I had made the realization, the
two animals stood on their hind legs and raised their paws in the
air. The fur that covered their bodies soon changed into smooth
skin, as the Shape-Shifters changed back into their human form. Two
young men stood where the animals had just been.

“
Ch-Charity, w-what in the
w-world...,” Link stumbled on the words, trying to get them
out.

“
Shape-Shifters, Link,” I
explained.

“
We contracted to help you
kill three Immortals,” the one who had just been the mountain lion
spoke first. “The man is not one of them. I can smell the slow
decay of his body. This guy’s mortal.”

“
Elliot, plans change.
Three, four, what’s the difference?” Ezekiel laughed.

“
Rowan, do you have a
problem with this?” Levi asked.

“
Absolutely not, as long as
we get paid,” the Shape-Shifter answered.

“
So, load them up and let’s
head to the top of the falls. It is isolated enough, we will be
completely alone, and God willing, no one will find the charred
remains of their bodies for months,” Levi laughed.

“
Link,” I cried out as I
saw Ezekiel raise his weapon. I was confronted by blackness as I
received my own blow to the head. I roused within seconds, but it
was enough time for them to bind my hands and place my body onto
one of the snowmobiles. I struggled to free myself, as Leviticus
was tying me to the vehicle.

“
Be still, you repugnant
creature, or I’ll do more than just knock-out your little
playmate,” Ezekiel barked a warning.

I nodded my head in agreement and watched as
my unconscious love was also bound and then gagged. Ezekiel winked
at me before he took off, up the zigzag treacherous road that led
to the top of the falls, with Link tied to the back of his vehicle.
Levi immediately followed his brother, with me strapped behind
him.

A dog and a mountain lion ran alongside
us.

They had not searched me. I was sure of it.
I could feel the cell-phone still in my left back pocket, my push
dagger was in my waistband, and I was willing to bet I still had a
few surprises in my other pockets. Arrogance had made them sloppy.
But even with weapons, I needed help. There were four of them and I
wasn’t sure if I could do it alone.

Their bindings were not the greatest and I
am quite limber. With a bit of wiggling, I was able to reach into
my right back pocket and extracted a throwing star. Even with my
hands bound, I was actually able to unfold the blades and saw my
way through the ropes. Once my hands were free I slid the cell
phone out of my other pocket. I needed to summon the others, and
then I would deal with the monster in front of me, and his brother
as well.

I used one hand to cover the bright screen,
afraid the glow would bring attention my way, and the other to
punch in Marcus’s number. The snowmobile swerved. I glanced up. We
were coming to a curve in the road. My fingers fumbled as I
hurriedly texted the words – Daner bridl fals – into the phone as
Levi took the sharp turn. It was totally misspelled but it’d have
to do. We hit a rock in the snow and the phone bounced out of my
hands.

I hadn’t pushed send!

“
Don’t look behind you.
Don’t see where it lands,” I silently whispered to
myself.

I saw the phone,
Charity.
I heard Marcus’s voice in my head
again.
I saw where it landed.
Marcus said. I had to be imagining his voice, but
I hoped I wasn’t.
We’re on our way.
Marcus assured me.

“
Please be real,” I
murmured to the wind and snow.

What else? I thought. What else could I do
without putting Link in danger? I racked my brain for any possible
plan of attack. I could probably kill Levi right now. I could reach
around his shoulders and drive my push dagger into his heart before
he knew what was happening. But I was too afraid of what the others
would do to Link. I decided to wait until we were together. I had
to be near him, to make sure he was safe, and then I would fight. I
would fight for my life, for both of our lives.

We reached our destination, the top of
Bridal Veil Falls. The residence at the edge of the falls, once
used as the power plant for the city below, was now vacated for the
winter. There would be no one to hear my cries, no one to call for
help or report a disturbance. I was on my own, that much I was sure
of.

Link had regained consciousness, sometime
during the ride. He shook his head and blinked his eyes. The brutal
force of the wind and snow would be enough to rouse the dead.

The Lord brothers cut us loose from the
vehicles, dragged us off, and stood us up, side by side. The dog
and the mountain lion were soon there, circling around us. I kept
my hands securely behind me, hoping that my earlier disposal of the
rope that bound them would go unnoticed. Leviticus and Ezekiel
stood a few feet away, their heads close, in quiet conversation.
The shrill wind destroyed any chance I had of deciphering their
words, so instead I turned to Link.

“
Link,” I whispered, “stand
back to back with me. We’ll slowly circle around and act extremely
afraid of the animals. I can cut through your rope and free your
hands.”

“
It won’t be an act,” he
whispered back. “I
am
extremely afraid of the animals.”

I moved quickly, backing up against Link. I
removed my push dagger and in one swift move I sliced through the
rope, letting it fall into the snow. As we slowly circled, while
the dog and the mountain lion circled us, I kicked snow onto the
bindings to hide them in the white powder.

“
What do you need the
Shifters for?” I called out to the Lords. “You boys afraid? Afraid
to do the job yourself? Afraid to fail?” I taunted.

“
Insurance policy,”
Leviticus answered. “There is strength in numbers. And you are
outnumbered.”

“
Push dagger,” I whispered
to Link, reminding him of his earlier present. “Get ready to use
it.”

“
We are tied up and
surrounded. What are you waiting for?” Link yelled.

“
We are just deciding who
gets to kill whom?” Ezekiel laughed. “I’m vying for the
Immortal.”

“
You’ll have to come
through me,” Link hissed.

“
As you wish,” Ezekiel
answered.

“
I’ll get the mountain lion
and you get the dog. Then you need to run away, Link. Please run
away from here,” I whispered as I placed my dagger into his hand.
“One weapon for each hand. I’ve got more,” I assured him and then
moved forward before he had time to disagree with me.