Foreshadow (18 page)

I wanted to cry. We were so close to freedom! Now Logan would have to fight with Andrei again. I hoped he could win this one.

Andrei smiled wickedly when he saw us. “Ah, Logan! I see you made it here. Now I don’t have to go looking for you.” He turned to me, clucking his tongue and shaking his head as if disappointed. “As for you, Rae, you’ve greatly saddened me. You know I need you, and yet you still try to escape. I thought you were better than that.” He started to advance on us. “But you’re just as selfish as a human! I guess I was wrong about you.”

Logan set me on my feet, making sure not to turn his back to Andrei. I stood up slowly, favoring my left ankle, which still hurt. “I’m not selfish, Andrei. Just because I wouldn’t do what you asked doesn’t make me selfish.” I limped forward to face him. “You’re the selfish one. You just can’t stand it when people won’t jump to your will. You want me to restore creatures to Heaven who may not belong there anymore. You and the others made your choices a long time ago, and now I’m making mine. I will not help you.”

Logan looked confused. I hadn’t taken the time to explain things as he’d been freeing me. I had been so absorbed with my excitement in seeing him again that I hadn’t told him the real reason Andrei had taken me.

Andrei threw back his head and laughed. “You mean you didn’t tell your little boyfriend what’s
actually
going on? Oh, that is just too rich. Now he will never know why he’s going to die. I
am
going to kill him, Rae. He can’t beat me. Then you will be returned to your cell where you will be chained until you decide to cooperate.”

He paused for a moment. “You know what else? Once you have helped us, I think I’m still going to keep you. I have grown even fonder of you over the past few weeks. I think I’d like to have to you with me—for eternity. You want to know the best part? With Logan dead, there will be no one to stop me!”

“I’m not dead yet, Andrei,” Logan said. He reached out his hand and his sword manifested once more in his hand.

“Yes, a fact that’s unfortunate, but it’s a problem that’s easily remedied,” Andrei said. The air shimmered near his hand, and a sword appeared there, too.

I hobbled back a few steps, trying to stay out of their way. Logan flung a hand in my direction, and part of the golden light glimmering around him jumped across the distance between us and surrounded me. A wave of calm washed over me.

Was he trying to manipulate my emotions so I wouldn’t worry about him? The calming effect quickly faded, replaced again by apprehension as I realized that Logan, while trying to protect me, had just prevented me from interfering in any way. The golden beam had solidified to the point where it could not only keep out any attack Andrei might direct toward me, but also keep me in.

I cringed as Logan and Andrei traded blow after blow, both with their swords and with the energies they could control. I hoped that maintaining the shield around me didn’t weaken Logan in any way.

It seemed as though they fought for hours. Neither seemed to be making any progress against the other. I began to wonder if either of them would tire out. I supposed since they were both supernatural beings, they didn’t need rest. Although I knew from our stay at the hotel that Logan did sleep. I prayed his strength wouldn’t fail.

Andrei seemed to be getting desperate. He made a frantic swing with his sword, which Logan deflected easily. I had no idea where Logan had learned to fight, but whatever he did seemed to be working.

Their swords clanged time and again. Logan whipped his blade, slashing Andrei across the face. Andrei reached a little too far, and Logan ducked under his guard. Logan flicked his blade again, this blow landing on Andrei’s shoulder. Andrei grimaced, but made no sound. Blood began to trickle down his arm, running onto the ground and staining the dark earth red.

All at once, Andrei leapt into the air, his sword thrusting downward and aiming for Logan’s heart. Logan spread his wings, too, and jumped to the side. He hovered in the air in front of Andrei. Reaching a stalemate, neither of them seemed to be able to overpower the other.

Andrei lunged once again, and once again Logan dodged. Logan’s fist flew toward Andrei’s chest. The second it hit, Andrei disappeared.

Logan hovered in the air, his wings barely moving. He whirled to look behind him. I glanced around, too. Andrei was nowhere in sight.

Logan allowed the golden shield around me to dissipate. “What happened? Are we safe?” I asked him.

“I don’t know!” Logan exclaimed, still looking around to make sure Andrei hadn’t appeared again. “Maybe I hit a weak spot. I’m not sure what happened, but we’re certainly not waiting around here to find out.” He ran to me and once again bent down to sweep me into his arms. He carried me quickly through the open portal.

We stepped out onto the beach under the pier, just as the sun began to rise. The sky shone with brilliant blues, deep purples, and bright pinks. The blazing orange of the sun peeked over the horizon, and a fog hung low over the water. My breath caught in relief at the familiar sight of the ocean and sand. I had never seen such anything more beautiful.

I tilted my head up and gazed into the deep emerald eyes of my rescuer. “Welcome home, Raena,” Logan whispered in my ear as he held me tightly.

Brea Essex was born Gilroy, California, called the “Garlic Capital of the World”. She graduated college with a degree in Medical Assisting. She lives near San Jose, California with her husband, their dog, three cats, and enough books to start her own library.

Jessica Hunter stood on a patch of grass, using her hand to block the sunlight reflecting off her mother’s casket. The humidity made her hair curl around her face, despite the effort she’d put into straightening it. The wooden box before her was perched on a contraption resembling a medieval torture device, which would lower the casket into the hole after Jess left. Then a backhoe would spill dirt on what remained of the best person she knew.

Everyone else who attended the funeral had disappeared. They moved back into their worlds, which still turned and still had significance. Jess was immobilized by fear and waited for her life to come back into focus. There was no color in the trees, and no grass surrounding her. She knew the birds sang, but she couldn’t hear them. She heard nothing, except the sound of the thoughts humming in her head. Being forced to observe the world’s rotation while she waited to reawaken was cruel.

Her unsteady fingers glided over the solid oak casket. They skipped across its urethane surface while her mind attempted to reconcile the truth. Her mother’s body lay inches away, but her spirit no longer occupied it. Her best friend and mentor had found happiness in a place to which Jess had no access. The taste of rusted metal arose in her throat and, eyeing the pristine roses atop the coffin, she thwarted the bitterness which threatened to swallow her. She feared that if she let the feeling boil, she would evaporate into nothingness.

Her brother’s back rested on his black SUV. He crossed one leg over the other and watched her closely. Jordan was tall and slender. In his black suit, he reminded her of the ushers who’d worked at the theater their dad owned when they were kids. He worked a stick of gum into his mouth. His body blurred in the heat of anger that encircled her.

They
were about; somewhere near. She could feel it when the wind changed. Their presence drove back the humidity and perfumed the breeze with honeysuckle. In the difficult days of her life, they always arrived. She dared not mention it to Jordan. He would have her locked up if she confessed she saw them there.

Jess glanced to the tree line that separated the cemetery from a subdivision nestled behind it. In the shadows of a massive, live oak, she saw the two familiar figures. One was blond with the body of a man and the soft skin and features of a teenager. The other was female, and although Jess couldn’t see her clearly from her vantage point, she knew her hair was brown and her lips were a peculiar shade of crimson.

They materialized from time to time, as though their presence was scripted into Jess’ life at precise moments. To her, they were as obvious as her brother daydreaming by his vehicle. Even so, she was the only one who saw them. At her father’s funeral, they’d sat in the pew behind Jess and her mother. The girl had laid her bony fingers on Jess’ shoulder, releasing the relentless tension she’d felt, and yet her mother hadn’t noticed. Jess recognized from the outset their comfort was only meant for her, or maybe she was just crazy.

They weren’t the only spirits who haunted her. The others appeared in malls, stood on corners, or occasionally passed her on crowded streets. She didn’t fear them, because they hauled around a load of tranquility that spilled onto her; and when her eyes lingered on them, the world slowed. Whoever they were, their purity ran so deep she could feel it tunnel itself into the shadows of her heart. In those brief seconds, when they crossed her path, she felt she could make amends with the tragedies of her life.

She turned away from the couple and refocused on the roses arranged in a beautiful spray over her mother’s final resting place. The smell of orange blossoms emerged from the heat of the August afternoon and embraced her. The anger slipped away, allowing her a vision of her mom smiling as she cleared weeds from the rose bed planted in their backyard.

Jordan shifted his weight anxiously next to the SUV and audibly cleared his throat. Jess knew it was time to leave. Her insides knotted against her chest, making it necessary to struggle for every breath, and the tears she’d managed to stow away during the funeral came in a cascade of mascara. Her strength was draining, and, under the weight of grief, her legs buckled. Jordan pushed away from the car with his palm and crumpled on the ground beside her. He pulled her to his chest and kissed the top of her head—supporting her, just as he always did.

They stayed for a while, huddled on the manicured lawn gazing upon the box that contained their mother. They had been abandoned, and they both felt the crushing loneliness. Jordan alone held the ties that kept Jess from unraveling. He had been drinking again. The earthy aroma of whiskey hung on his breath and a web of red lines crisscrossed the whites in his eyes, but she couldn’t chastise him, and she couldn’t blame him for giving in to the only crutch he thought allowed his survival.

Jess steadied herself against his body and stood, staring blankly at her brother. Jordan unfolded her fist and buried a key ring in the palm of her hand. She fingered the three keys. The sadness in his eyes said he didn’t want her to hang on to their inevitable goodbye. She looked toward the trees where the couple had been. Jess couldn’t see them anymore, and their sudden absence made her isolation more profound.

“Listen, the apartment in the French Quarter is paid for. I’ll take care of the house. You need to go for a while, so take my SUV.”

His dark eyes were surrounded by deep blue shadows. He obviously hadn’t slept in days. Jess searched her brain for an argument, but inside she wanted to travel as far from reality as his Chevy could take her. “I love you. I promise to call every day. Jordan—”

He put his hand on her shoulder, halting her words, a gesture only she could comprehend. They were less than a year apart, and sometimes his thoughts were hers before they developed properly. “Jess, go. You can’t stay here. I’m going to take care of things and figure out what to do now. You have to find out what being you means." He rested his arm on the casket and then laid his head on it, his voice breaking. “Without this.”

She nodded as a red Ford Focus pulled in behind the SUV. His ride back to the horror of life waited for him, and she needed to get going.

“I love you," she said again. "Please be careful.” Her voice reflected only a hint of the pain she felt.

“We’re going to be together again. I want you to be happy. That’s why I want you to go.”

She threw her arms around him in a final hug and pushed him toward the car. As she watched the gap between them grow, she tried to convince herself starting anew would make her stronger. However, as he pulled away, she felt overwhelmed by solitude harsher than all the losses she had suffered. She wanted to stay, but they had to find a way to become people outside of their protected world, and Jess ordered her emotions back into their cage.

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