Burning up the Rain (Hawaiian Heroes) (18 page)

“Whoa,” he said. “Lightning hit something, all right.”

She turned her head, peering almost fearfully through her tumbled hair. Then she sat up on his lap and craned her neck. “Oh Pele,” she muttered.

She leaned over, yanking on the door handle. “Come on, come on. I have to see.”

Jack followed her out of the truck, but she was fast, slipping out of the big vehicle and dashing over to the edge to stare down. He caught up with her there and stopped dead.

“Holy hell,” he breathed. “Would you look at that?”

The lightning had hit the Caterpillar tractor. A great black slash was gouged through where the cab had been, and the center of the blade was molten metal, still smoking from the heat and force of the strike. The pile of stakes was nothing more than smoldering cinders.

Jack slipped his arm around Lalei, pulling her close. “That could’ve been us.”

With a quiet sigh of sound, Lalei fainted against him.

Lalei was dreaming. She was swimming—no, flying through the clouds, diving and pirouetting like a spinner dolphin in the waves. A koa‘e kea bird flew alongside her, long white tail streaming out like a banner, cry echoing through the skies. Laughing with exhilaration, Lalei reached out and wafted warm showers of rain down over her beloved island, a patchwork of green, gold and black below.

With the gleeful abandon of a child, she clenched her fist around a lightning bolt and flung it toward an outcropping of rock. As it flashed, she grasped another and another, searching for more targets.

The last one struck a moving target, one that became all too familiar as it wavered to a halt, the doors tumbling open. It was Malu’s big black truck on the road above Nawea. And the figure staggering out to fall on the ground was Jack. He lay still, his blond hair a bright banner against the blackened ground underneath him.

With a cry of terror, she swooped down, close enough to see his blue eyes already clouding over with death.

“No,” she screamed, falling on him, holding on to his big shoulders. “No, I didn’t mean to hurt you. Jack!”

His gaze sharpened, pulling her into a vault of blue accusation. “You shouldn’t play with things you can’t control, city girl.”

“Lalei, wake up. It’s okay, baby. Wake up.”

Lalei woke with a gasp to find herself in her bed at Nawea. Jack sat on the bed with her, leaning over, his hands on her arms. Behind him hovered Bella, David and Melia.

But Jack—he was alive. In the light of the bedside lamp, he looked like hell, his tanned face pale with strain, a big smear of mud across one cheek and all over his turquoise polo shirt—but he was alive.

Aside from the sweet breeze of relief blowing over her, Lalei ached as if she’d been yanked through a plumeria hedge backward, and then rolled in the mud. Her right shoulder throbbed with pain, and she was so exhausted she could barely lift her head from the pillow.

Jack closed his eyes for a moment and then opened them. His gaze was haunted. “Jesus,” he said roughly. “Thank God. I thought—” He broke off, shaking his head.

“You fainted. Jack thought you were hurt,” David said, his intent gaze sending her some message. “He wanted us to get you to the emergency room. But I explained how you always used to be so scared of storms when we were keikis. Remember?”

What on earth was her cousin talking about? She watched blearily as he jerked his head toward Jack. Oh, he wanted Jack to think her little fainting was because she’d been frightened by the storm, not because… Her mind shied away from what had really happened.

She nodded, corroborating his words. Malu’s taut stance relaxed.

“And I told Jack you faint a lot,” Bella added meaningfully. “I mean, sometimes. When you’re really upset.”

Lalei scowled at her. Okay, she got that they were trying to keep the truth from Jack, but that was just taking this whole “poor Lalei” thing too far.

“Ah, you must be okay if you’re making that pissy face.” Jack smoothed his hands down her arms. “You remember what happened?”

“I remember.” She lifted one hand and touched her face gingerly, grimacing as she felt dried mud. “If that was your idea of a first date, we’re through.”

He grinned crookedly. “Yeah, you’re okay.”

David clapped one hand on Jack’s shoulder, winking at Lalei. “Okay, brah. Why don’t we get out of here and let the girls take over. You can see her in the morning.”

“Could use a drink,” Jack said.

Lalei nearly grabbed Jack and held on to him. She didn’t want the girls taking over; she wanted him. But she curled her hands into fists and merely watched as he rose, towering over the bed and giving her a last look before he turned to follow Malu out of the room. Her protective warrior, his wounds hidden deep inside.

“Do you feel well enough to get up?” Bella asked.

Lalei was surprised by this unusual display of concern. Melia looked equally worried, but Bella’s gaze seemed to hold a kind of complicity, as if she knew the fear and shame that raged inside Lalei. But how could she?

Summoning all her strength, she pushed herself upright and swung her legs over the side of the bed. She grimaced as she looked down at herself. Ugh, she had mud all over her. Courtesy of being tackled by an ex-lineman and carried to safety, she supposed.

“I’m fine, thank you,” she said politely. “I just need a shower.”

“Good idea,” Melia said. “You’ll feel better.” She sank down on the easy chair by the window, her head tipped back against the cushions. “We’ll wait out here.”

Lalei nodded, wishing she could tell both women to just go away until she was dried and dressed. She’d feel better once she’d donned the feminine armor of clothes and makeup.

She pushed herself off the bed but staggered, her balance deserting her.

“Yeah, you’re fine—
not
,” Bella muttered. “Come on, cuz. I’ll help you.”

She put her arm under Lalei’s and walked her into the bathroom. Hanging on to the edge of the counter, Lalei let her cousin help her strip off her clothes, dropping them in a heap in the corner.

“I’ll be right out here,” Bella said, reaching in to turn on the shower. “Just call me if you feel dizzy again.”

“Okay.” In the shower, Lalei leaned on the wall as she washed her hair and then her body, wincing as she smoothed soap over her right shoulder. When she had rinsed herself, she peered down to see that the skin on her shoulder was fine, except for an odd mark just inside the joint, above her armpit. Thinking it was mud, she scrubbed at it with the washcloth, but instead of disappearing, it sharpened as the water washed away the creamy soap suds.

Lalei staggered, banging against the wall of the shower with a hollow thud, her head reeling again as it had before she fainted on the mountain. The water streamed on, unnoticed as she stared blankly through the steam.

“Lalei?” The shower doors slammed open to reveal Bella, her face worried. “Lalei, what is it? Did you fall?”

The water shut off, and Bella grabbed the big, fluffy bath towel from the rack. Lalei shivered in the warm air. She couldn’t seem to move. “I have…a tattoo.”

Bella peered through the steam at her, the towel forgotten in her hands. Then she carefully reached out and touched the mark on Lalei’s shoulder. “‘Aue,” she breathed. “You do.”

“It’s beautiful,” Melia added, appearing at Bella’s side. “Like a sort of Hawaiian lightning bolt, with those curving marks around it.”

“Whoa,” Bella said, grabbing Lalei’s shoulders with the towel. “Come on, let’s get you sitting down. You’re as white as a plumeria petal.”

For the next several moments, Lalei succumbed to the novel experience of being fussed over by someone other than paid salon attendants.

“Why do I have a tattoo?” she asked plaintively. Suzy was going to have a screaming fit. Although that was pretty small papayas, with everything else that was going on.

Bella drew the wide-toothed comb through Lalei’s hair a last time and patted her shoulder. “Because you’re
ho’omalu
, a guardian,” she said. “And you used your powers. You must have caused that lightning. And I’m guessing you’re the reason the weather was so weird yesterday afternoon before the wedding too. Malu said he felt something, but we were all so busy.”

“That was an accident,” Lalei admitted miserably. “And so was this thing today. I was so…angry. And I—I almost killed Jack.” Guilt howled through her as the storm winds had on the mountain.

Bella’s hand tightened. “Angry at Jack?”

Lalei jerked her head back, glaring up at her cousin. “No! Of course not at Jack. At those TropicSun people.”

“All right. Well, you didn’t hurt him, just yourself. Now come on, let’s get you to bed.”

Lalei looked up to see Melia touching Bella’s arm, her face full of concern. Bella’s pretty face was grim. Oh yes, Bella
had
used her powers to kill. But at least those had been murderous drug smugglers, not the man she l—the man with whom she was having an affair.

Lalei woke the next morning, refreshed and rested. In fact, she discovered, sitting up cautiously, she felt wonderful. She looked out at the morning sun shining down to light Nawea Bay, glinting off the surf and the grass thatch of the dock shelter. It was late—midmorning already. Time to get up and get on with her day. Time to see Jack.

She slipped out of bed with a smile on her face. She stopped halfway across the room.

Jack
. Jack, whom she’d nearly killed yesterday. Jack, who had no idea what kind of woman he’d been having passionate sex with.

She pressed her hands to her head, wishing she could squeeze the guilt out of her mind. What if she’d killed him? How could she live with that, knowing that he was no more? That she’d killed the man she was coming to l—

She lowered her hands, shaking her head emphatically. Okay, time to quit dwelling on sloppy emotion. Yes, she’d come close to hurting Jack, but that didn’t mean they were star-crossed lovers, for Pele’s sake.

She padded over to her suitcase, where she chose her last clean clothing, a short white knit tank dress and cocoa cardigan with white stylized plumeria embroidered around the hem just under her breasts. At least it would cover the strange new marking that had appeared on her skin. A ho’omalu tattoo, courtesy of Pele’s magic. ‘Aue.

Needing the routine of normality, she hurried into the bathroom. She applied a dusting of eye makeup, lip gloss, used some styling mousse and brushed her hair into a shining swath. Then she stared at herself in the mirror. She was still Lalei Kai-Ho’omalu, at least on the outside.

Bella walked into the kitchen, fresh in red shorts and top, while Lalei was drinking a glass of orange-pineapple juice.

“Good, you’re up,” Bella said. “Come on. We need to talk to Malu while your lover boy is in the shower.”

“But I haven’t even had breakfast.” Lalei looked longingly at the granola, rolls and fruit set out on the big kitchen island.

“You can eat in a few minutes.”

Lalei hurried to grab a mug of coffee and carried it carefully after her cousin out of the house. David and Melia waited on the beach lanai in the warm morning sun. Her big cousin sat on the foot of his wife’s lounger, his hand on her bare leg. As Lalei and Bella came around the palms onto the lanai, Melia smiled sleepily at Lalei.

“Good morning.” David looked searchingly at Lalei as she sat down. She nodded and clenched her hands around her mug of coffee, quelling the urge to run.

“So, explain how this—this power thing works,” she said. She took a sip of hot, strong Kona coffee.

“You’ve been gifted with the power of a guardian,” David said, his deep voice gentle. “You must learn to control it. To do that, you must accept it. Can you do this?”

She frowned at him and then at Bella, who perched on the end of a lounger. “If you can, I can too.”

Bella rolled her eyes. “This is not a competition, Lalei.”

“Hey, shh-sh,” David soothed. “Lalei, I know you’re afraid. That’s natural, yeah? Do you think there has been a ho’omalu since the beginning who hasn’t gone through the same fears, the same confusion? Since our ancestor Kalo first climbed this mountain to beg Pele for mercy and came down a different man, one of her chosen guardians, each of us has to learn what we can do. This isn’t a theme park, with magic dropped in your lap. It’s real power tapped from dis island and from Mother Pele herself.”

“He’s right,” Bella said. “I’m sorry, Lalei. I was terrified when my powers began to manifest. Joel thought I was a controlling bitch at first.”

Lalei gave her a pointed look, and Bella shrugged. “Okay, so I am one. Deal with it. You’re a snob.”

“Bella,” Melia warned.

Lalei smirked at Bella, stealthily tugging on one of the small morning clouds floating across the flank of the mountain. It wafted silently down toward them, a fine mist of rain trailing from the rapidly darkening bottom. Shaking a little with excitement and nerves, she tamped down on the power and pulled very gently so the cloud stayed small and harmless.

David glanced up. His eyes widened, and he bit down on one side of his wide mouth. Bella glanced suspiciously from him to Lalei. She turned just as the rain fell, perfectly targeted on her upturned face. She let out a squawk of protest as it drenched her.