Deadly Expectations (85 page)

“Where did you send Paul?” I growled as I twisted the blade in him.

Damian was breathing hard as his blood soaked my shirt, bubbling from the hole in his chest.

“Don’t know … don’t care …” he grunted.

Andre’s work was done and I could feel him start to fade from me.

“Didn’t need you as much as I thought …” I whispered.

Damian’s struggles under me softened with the contraction and his hand fell from my throat.
 
I put my right hand on his chest feeling him fight to breathe as the flow of blood leaving his body slowed.
 
I held a charge of blue energy in my palm and waited.

His pulse weakened as his damaged heart faltered.
 
He looked up at me, the anger on his face replaced with a mocking smile.

“I’ll see you again bitch,” he managed with the last full lung of air he would draw in on his own.
 
His breath started to hitch in his chest as his diaphragm tried to sustain him.
 
I put my leg over him, straddling his body as I moved to his other side.

“Sshhh,” I told him.
 
“Sshhh.
 
Let me help.”
 
I held Damian’s nose shut and sealed my mouth over his then I blew and filled his lungs with my air as his heart stuttered.
 
As it stopped I pushed the blue light into his chest, capturing the future end of his long life line where I had cut it before it could go free, holding on to it tightly.

I took my air back, filling my lungs with it, pulling the line into me.
 
It found its way down in to my chest along with mine and the baby’s.
 
I held my breath, feeling it shift and move as it aligned itself with my own.
 
I quickly thought which of my gifts I could tie down with it.
 
Which would help the most.
 
The family had plenty of fighters.
 
Traveling only helped me.
 
But reading the family would help everyone as we regained all that Damian had taken.
 
I held that gift to Damian’s line in my chest as it found its place and bound it self to me.

It was only then that I took my lips off his and pushed myself away.

“Your gift is
mine
now.”
 
I whispered to his empty body.
 
I fell over as another contraction hit, landing on my side on a mat of scorched grass.

The next few contractions were agony, catching up on the work they’d missed when I stalled the labour.
 
I dug my nails into the ground beneath me and screamed through them, in too much pain to breathe properly.
 
I tried to relax in between, listening to the quiet sounds the flames made, the soft ticks the cooling metal made but they followed each other quickly.
 
I knew I had to find the strength to get up on my feet.
 
To try and walk out.
 
I’d been in the wreckage for a couple of hours and nobody had come looking for survivors.
 
It would be up to me to make it a few blocks.
 
I hoped that help would be that close.
 
Maybe I could get to my car, get it started, try to jump to Paul before the baby came … then get him home with me.
 
I knew in my heart it wouldn’t happen but maybe I could get to the hospital.

When I felt I had control of the contractions again I pushed myself up and got Damian’s knife before I stood and walked around him for his gun.
 
Both went in my pack then I held him down with my foot to pull out my knife but it came out easily, maybe because I’d been twisting it.
 
I wiped most of his blood from the blade onto my sleeve before it went in to my bag.
 
The Colonel said it was a gift but I still might have to return it.
 
I had a cigarette at my lips and my lighter out as I breathed through another one.

As it passed I sparked the lighter to it.

“Andre?
 
Why are you still here?” I yelled.
 
If I wanted a cigarette it meant he wasn’t gone.
 
I pulled smoke deep into my lungs once.
 
Then again.
 
I was supposed to be free of him now.
 
But I could still feel him.

“Andre?”
 
I yelled again.
 
“It’s over … I want my head back!”

The tears that ran down my face now weren’t dried instantly in the heat.
 
I had another drag as I got my bearings.
 
Home was a block and a half away, the fastest path would lead me past Brandon and his mother.
 
I knew every bit of this place as well as I knew my own face.

After the pain had come and gone again I turned toward home and took a few steps, looking at Damian on the ground as I went around him to make sure I didn’t trip.
 
When I looked up I was facing a man.
 
A vision of Paul, just ten feet away staring back at me.

“No … You’re not here … He sent you away …” I said as I realized that sanity could still be a long way off.

The vision didn’t move.
 
My hands shook as I took another cigarette from my bag and lit it, only then realizing that I still had half of one in my hand.
 
After a bit of indecision I kept the new one and let the old one drop to the ground.
 
Andre was sick, sticking around to torment me now with hallucinations.

“You’re not here … not here …” I breathed as it watched me through another contraction.

“Andre?”
 
I yelled, sobbing, sending my anguish into the sky.
 
“Is this because I didn’t need you after all?
 
He’s gone … Damian sent him away.
 
Take this from my sight!”

The vision stepped closer as I put the smoke to my lips again.

“Not here … not here …” I murmured as I exhaled.

When he got to me he took the cigarette and put it on the ground.
 
He looked back at me.
 
Angry.
 
Pained.
 
My mind putting everything I expected Paul to feel onto his face.
 
His hand touched my cheek and went around behind my head.
 
His fingers gently grasped my hair as his other rested on my huge stomach.

“I’m here,” the vision whispered.
 
“He sent me away, said I could come back when it was over … then I was with her at the pond.
 
We talked a while … until I came back here and heard you screaming.”

He let go of my hair and put his hand on my chest.

“Feel me here … I’m real,” he said then his hand went back up to hold my head again.

I tried to put the cigarette to my mouth again but it was gone so I reached in my bag to get another.

“Here …” he said as he took my hand and put it on my chest.

Another contraction started to take hold and I put my hands on my stomach as my eyes rolled back and my lids closed, my head resting over on his arm.
 
I could feel his fingers on my cheek but they were gone when the pain let go and I could open my eyes.

“It’s a trick,” I whispered, feeling my connection to Paul in my chest again.
 
Hating Andre even more.

“No trick,” he said as he leaned closer, putting his lips near mine for a few seconds before pulling back.
 
I followed with my nose picking up the smell of sweet grass and wildflowers mixed with the scent of Paul.

“No trick,” I whispered.
 
He was really here.
 
I wasn’t sure what would have been easier.
 
Ignoring the vision until I got away from this place or facing Paul and getting out of here together.
 
Pain was still in his eyes, it hadn’t let go one bit since I noticed him.

“Did you follow my screams to kill me Paul?” I asked.
 
“You could have walked away.”

He didn’t answer.
 
Anger replaced the pain in his eyes as his fingers worked their way further into my hair.
 
Not painfully, but firmly enough to let me know that he was in control of whatever happened next.
 
Whatever he was going to do I wanted him to get on with it.
 
If we were going home we needed to hurry.

“She’s coming soon … take her Paul.
 
I won’t fight what I’ve got coming to me.”

Paul frowned, his bottom lip pushing up into his top one then he pushed up my sleeve to see my makeshift dressing.
 
He leaned to the side to look at my leg.

“Did he hurt you?” he asked while he looked at what I’d done to Damian.

I nodded.

“This is where you listen to me Anna,” he said.
 
He was dead serious and sounded like he didn’t have an ounce of patience in his entire body.

I nodded in reply.

“I was on the phone with Ray when you called him … he tied me in and I heard everything.
 
And again when he got through to you later.
 
I’m sorry about Bee and Denis.
 
I’m sorry I wasn’t there.
 
That was how you wanted it.
 
I know why you did what you did.
 
You weren’t yourself.
 
I haven’t seen the Anna I fell in love with in a long time.
 
I thought about getting out of your life for good this time.
 
Just one swing at you would free me.
 
Ray told me why you did it but I didn’t believe him until I heard you say it tonight.
 
I was close … Denis called me a week ago when you showed up at your place so I flew to
Vancouver
.
 
Then when you called Ray tonight I came straight over.
 
I was watching the house when the plane came down.
 
I followed you; watching you with him until you got the knives out.”

Another contraction had stopped, but I only nodded.

“I didn’t know if you could do it or not … I stepped in anyway.”

“I almost sent you away,” I whispered.
 
“I wouldn’t have had the energy to fight alone if I had … she stopped me … he sent you where I was going to, used most of his to do it …”

“I told you to be quiet,” he said.
 
“Just nod … is it over now?”

I nodded.

As the pain returned again I felt something pop low inside me and water started to leak out down my legs.
 
I looked into his eyes this time as I breathed and more came out.

“Paul,” I managed as it faded.
 
He didn’t answer right away.
 
I could see his mind working, deciding.

“I said be quiet.
 
Where is Andre now?”

I could see Andre behind Paul as the pain returned again.
 
His presence could only mean I was still crazy.
 
There was nothing I could do about that now.
 
I was breathing hard so I raised my right hand to point behind Paul but he grabbed my wrist and held it tightening his grip on my hair at the same time.
 
I didn’t blame him for being wary of that hand.

“I’m here, behind you Captain,” Andre said, his words in my ears and not just in my mind.
 
Paul’s grip on me relaxed for a split second.
 
He’d heard it too.
 
Then he let go of my head and slowly turned.
 
When he saw Andre he put himself between us, letting me go.

“I wanted to say goodbye.
 
Pilot has freed me … I don’t need her anymore.”

I wanted to pick up my knife and stick it in Andre now.
 
All the pain and manipulation.
 
I could see it now for what it was.
 
The woman who had left him for his brother had chosen wisely if that was the kind of lover Andre had always been.