Michael (The Mark) (The Airel Saga, Book 4: Part 7-8) (3 page)

It all made hellish sense. Her motives, her behavior, her …smell … could all be explained by the one simple question that I didn’t dare ask my best friend.

I hesitated. I didn’t know where it would leave us once I opened this can of worms. A question like that couldn’t be unasked. Certain things couldn’t be unsaid, just like certain things couldn’t be undone. I thought about how my mom always used to tell me, “Adult decisions have adult consequences,” urging me to be very careful as I tested the world with my newfound teenage powers of choice. I thought I knew everything. Now it was starting to become clear just how little I knew and how much my parents—painful subject that that was to me—had known all along.

“Kim,” I ventured, fearing the end of everything good and right in the world, “I … I need to talk to you.”

She sat up and looked at me, pulling the covers up to her neck. Her face was serious. “Yeah, I guess we’re overdue.” She yawned.

You don’t know how right you are.
I decided to just go for it. “Um, did you happen to find a little red stone anytime recently?” I couldn’t bear to look her in the eye, afraid of what I might find there. But I finally looked up at her.

A cornered cat. That’s what she was. “Airel,” she finally said, “I don’t have it.”

I had never seen her this way. This was not my happy-go-lucky Kim, my chatty Kim, my space-case buddy from way back. She looked scared. I didn’t know what to say.

“I swear, Airel. I don’t have it.”

“It was down in the park,” I said, the light coming on, “wasn’t it?” I felt so stupid. It was all coming together.

She nodded and then looked away in shame.

“So …” I was in disbelief. “So you carried it this whole time? All the way from …from …”

“I found it on the ground after Michael … um …after Michael—”

“Killed his dad?”

She was crying. “Pretty much.” But these were not tears of relief, of confession.

“Kim, why are you so scared?”

She wouldn’t answer.

I reached out and touched her arm. She gave a little start, but then burst into tears.

“Oh, Airel. I’m so scared,” she sobbed. “I’ve never wanted anything so bad in my whole life.” Her body was racked with tears, but then she recovered. “I’ve never messed around with drugs or anything. But I can’t tell you how bad this feels. I mean, it’s like I don’t even know my own thoughts. They just keep pounding away at me. I don’t even know where they’re coming from or why—I mean, I guess I know
why,
I just don’t recognize the things that pop into my head, and now it’s gone and I don’t know where it is …” As she said this last part, she looked right into my eyes and I could tell it was a lie.

“Kim. Yes, you do. ‘Fess up.”

She growled at me. Showing her teeth. Her eyes were crazed.

“Kim. Don’t. Mess. With. Me. You know I can handle you, no matter what.”
Not that I want to fight my BFF, but dang.

“I’m scared …”

“We’ve established that. Where is it?”

Nothing.

“Kim, I can’t tell you how dangerous this is. Do you know what you’ve—”
Check that.
I didn’t want to make her feel worse by implicating her as being responsible for all our miseries so far on this trip. “Listen. The Brotherhood wants that thing more than … more than a fat kid wants his next snack, okay? Can I let you in on a little secret?” I gauged her for a second.
How much do you want to bet she already knows this?

She looked up at me. “What?”

I plunged ahead, hoping my transparency would pay dividends between us in the long run. I missed my normal Kimmie. “You wanna know why they’re chasing us down? It’s not just ‘cause Michael killed Mr. Alexander. Stanley, I mean.” I looked at her more closely. “It’s because … whoever picks up that stone, the Bloodstone, becomes the next Seer.”

She seemed unfazed; I couldn’t make it out. Maybe she had already figured that out, or heard whisperings about it, much like
She
would wind her way into my thoughts.

“Kim, that means power. Plain and simple.”
She
popped into my head with this epithet:
“Deception equals control equals power.”
It felt true enough. Especially just looking at Kim. I reached out to touch her once more.

This time she didn’t jump. “He has it,” she said simply.

“Who,” I said, though the stab in my heart told me the truth.

“Michael,” she said matter-of-factly, and I could tell it was partway intended as a jab. That wasn’t Kim; it was the Bloodstone. My anger kindled. I was speechless. “What will he do with it, I wonder?” she went on.

“Kim …”

“No, hear me out,” she said. “What possible reason could he have for wanting to keep it? And keep it secret? From, of
all
people, you? His so-called love?”

“Kim, you’re starting to weird me out.” I didn’t add that I wanted more than anything to slap the smugness right off her face.
What is happening to us?
But I knew—it was the stupid stone. I growled and stood, pacing.

“What’s the matter, Airel?” Her tone was sickeningly sweet.

I bolted to her and got in her face, snarling. “Just you shut up, Kim. Seer. Whoever I’m talking to. You’re not yourself, and you’re out of your depth. No matter who you are.”

She feigned mock surprise and awe.

I released her throat, which I didn’t realize I had grasped in my anger, and stood away. “And for crying out loud, girl, would you brush your teeth before we have our next conversation?”

Thank God that broke the spell, or whatever.

Kim laughed out loud. She then walked in her underwear to the bathroom, her body covered with scratches, sores, bruises, and red marks. She looked awful. My heart sank for her. More than ever, I felt overwhelmed.

Worst of all … Michael. My Michael.
Now what?

CHAPTER IV

I DIDN’T HAVE MUCH time to contemplate anything, because Ellie then burst into the room saying something about Michael.

I feared the worst and wondered why.

“Airel, I—wait, where’s Kim?”

“She’s in the shower,” I said. “I know it’s like 3 a.m., but she’s weird. Anyway, why?”

She looked relieved for some reason. “I just like to know the whereabouts of my teammates, that’s all.”

“Some team,” I muttered under my breath. Then I addressed her. “Ellie, what’s going on?”

“I need help.”

She looked so desperate that I was able to suppress my laughter. “With what?”

“I don’t know what to do with him.”

“Who?” I growled, suspecting the worst possible answer, the wrong one.
Why can’t she just leave my man alone?

“It’s Michael. I need your help.”

I shot up off the bed and got in her face. “How dare you. You know what, it’s high time I told you off, little missy. How dare you. How dare you. You stay away from him, you hear? Do you hear me? You stay away from him or I’ll—I can’t believe you’re doing this, in broad daylight too.”
Never mind that it’s the middle of the night …
“Anyway, right under my nose, just flaunting your flirting. I’m sick of it, sick of you. I’m warning you …” I stopped in mid-rant because she turned away with a smirk, raised her hands, and shook her head. What gall. I couldn’t believe it.

All she said was, “Oh, the irony,” and circled back around to face me. Her eyes were loaded with meaning I couldn’t hope to understand.

I tried to speak, but couldn’t.

“Airel, listen closely, because I’m only going to say this once. I have no interest in your Alexander demon boy. At least insofar as it does not directly concern
you.
And for the record, I’m disappointed.”

“About what?”

“That you’ve not guessed it yet. The intelligence I’d gathered up to now led me to believe you were smarter. Quicker.”

“Look, you don’t have to insult me, too—”

“I’m not, girlie. I’m just trying to help. Will you let me?”

It was just intolerable. One drop of kindness could defuse a nuclear bomb, dagnabbit. I scowled at her but relented. “Fine. But this conversation is not over.”

“As I said: irony. Now, shall we go rescue your silly bloke together?”

Ooo, I hate this. Because now Ellie and I have common ground and it involves the love of my life. Darn you, sissy la-la Aussie electric-blue pompom-head girl.
“What’s he done now?” I asked, the words chafing against me even as I spoke them.

“Um, yeah. You will have to see it to believe it. Unfortunately.” She stalled for a moment. “I don’t suppose this is the best time or place to confess this, but he and I were out and about together earlier. Just the two of us. It was a reconnaissance mission.”

“Go on,” I said through clenched teeth.

“He was concerned about signs of a tail, an enemy observation scheme. We ran them down together, stopped them. But it wasn’t at all what we expected, and that’s why I need you.”

Before I could interject, Kim emerged from the bathroom nude, looking like the bride of Satan’s spawn. “Kim,” I said, “Would you wrap up in a towel or something?”

She simply yawned. “Oh, hi, girls,” she said and walked to the bed and snuggled under the covers.

“Anyway…we’ve gotta run out for a minute,” I said.

No response. Just muffled snores.

“Holy crap, is she out already?”

“Looks to be so, girlie.”

I rolled my eyes. My life was officially ridiculous. Yeah, and things had kinda been skewing that way for a while now. “So, what is going on?” I asked again, perturbed that I was still not getting it. It was like my mind had clouded over with a mental cataract or something.

“It’s Michael.”

“Duh.”

“I need you to help me with him.”

“Yes …” I arched my eyebrows.

“Look, it’s easier if you just come with me now.”

I didn’t like that at all. I growled again. “You are the most exasperating person I know.”

“Well, you can either come or not. You’re still making the choices here.”

Yeah, this whole freakin’ thing stinks.
I grabbed my room key and led her out the door in a huff.

***

WE APPROACHED THE PARK where, I could imagine clearly now, the Bloodstone had changed hands between Kim and Michael right under my nose. He hadn’t told me about it at all.
But if he has it, why did he tell me to talk to Kim? She doesn’t have it, he does.
I was incredibly worried that he was making some stupid brave decision, some chauvinistic act of noble duty and self-sacrifice to which men are so often and so foolishly predisposed.
Hello, Hero Boy, I don’t need you to rescue me. I just want you to talk to me.
It made me even more irritable that he didn’t trust me enough to share the burden of it with me.

“Darn you, Michael,” I muttered under my breath, “what have you done now?”

I looked askance at Ellie walking alongside me. No clues there. Her lips were sealed shut in a grimace of strong determination as she walked through the grass with me.

Finally she stopped and pointed. “There,” she said. It was clear she did not intend to accompany me further.

“Fine,” I said, and walked in the direction described by her index finger. All I could see in front of me was the little roped-off beach area just beyond the trees and grass. There was a dark shape there, but I wasn’t sure … It looked like a boulder to me in the dim light. I looked back to Ellie for confirmation, but she had already turned back. She was probably going back to the hotel for some sleep.
What a luxury,
I thought.
Why is she even here? To stir up all kinds of crap for me to deal with?

I heard a noise from the beach and turned back toward the water. The shape that I had assumed was a boulder was subtly moving. The hair on the back of my neck stood up, and I groped around for
She.
Nothing.

Frozen to my place at the edge of the manicured grass, I waited in fear for more information. The shape was human.
Maybe.
It looked and sounded like someone was bent over, sobbing quietly in the sand. I decided to get closer. The choice wasn’t made with the consent of my awareness; it was pure destiny.

I wagered a further risk. “Michael?” I took a few more timid steps toward the shape.

Then I realized what it was; the bubble of impossibility popped.
It’s not one person. It’s two.
Drawn out prone in the cold dark of the sand was a second person. The hair on my arms stood erect and my eyes widened, stark. Only one of the people was moving. The other was lifeless.

Please, God, don’t let that be Michael.
I thought Ellie had betrayed me, that she had lured him out alone with her and then ambushed, assaulted, and killed him with one of her confederates. Who that might have been, I had no idea, but that didn’t matter. Then she had come for me, led me here so that I could be done to death as well, and then she went off to kill Kim as she slept. I looked wildly around in a panic.

I couldn’t help but shout in a hoarse whisper, “Michael.” I was about ten feet away from either certain death or the love of my life, and it never once occurred to me to try to call the Sword of Light.

The shape moved, twisted toward me, and I saw a face in the dark; a face I knew well. “Michael.” I ran to him, crashed to the sandy earth on my knees at his side, and wrapped my arms around his neck. It was him.

I felt his sobs as they racked both of us in heaving grief. He did not return my embrace. I pulled away to see what was the matter. I then saw a thing that would change me forever, just like every little thing I had been made to endure since we had first met, since he had activated me, since we had sparked our intense bond to each other.

It was the face of a child.

Held in Michael’s arms was a boy of no more than about ten years of age. His eyes were pallid and dull in death. Michael’s face was drawn back in overwhelming pain. His sobs came in stabbing spasms as he moaned and cried.

I didn’t know what to do. I had been thrust into a cup of such an impossible admixture of morbidity, pain, love, and sympathy, it felt absolutely crazy to be stirred up within it. It hurt beyond words, but I was with him. I knew that I could do anything, endure anything, as long as I had my Michael. It was a fact, so I stayed there with him on that little beach in the darkness as he held the corpse of a boy.