Redemption (11 page)

Scenes of Albuquerque flashed across the screen, the burning and collapsed buildings. The bloody faces and limbs of people in the street.

“So that’s how they’re explaining it,” she mumbled.

“Turn it off, Emma.” Will’s voice was harsher than he meant, but she’d finally begun to let the incident go and this would only reopen the wound.

She ignored him.

“No group has claimed responsibility for the attack, but the White House has suggested it was carried out by an extremist militia group that supports a one-world government, the Cavallo.”

Emma’s head whipped around to Will, her eyes wide. He moved next to her on the bed.

“Information has leaked that the secret group has specifically targeted Senator Warren by attacking while Alex Warren was in Albuquerque for a fundraiser. The younger Warren hasn’t been seen since the attack, raising speculations that he was either killed by the terrorists or he was one of them. A spokesman from the Warren camp called the speculation ridiculous.”

A man appeared on the screen. “Alex Warren is not part of a radical terrorist group and to suggest otherwise is ludicrous. These rumors are being spread by Senator Warren’s political enemies.”

The news anchor’s face returned. “The missing Warren is only fueling outrage in both camps. No further information is known about the Cavallo at this time.”

Phillip Warren’s beaming face lit up the screen and he stood on a stage, waving to a crowd. “Since the attack, Warren’s numbers continue to soar, giving Warren a previously unheard of twenty-point lead.”

The newscast broke for commercials.

“Who would have linked the Cavallo to Albuquerque?” Emma asked. “Isn’t that a little too close to Warren? Won’t it eventually be tied back to him?”

“Maybe, but it probably wasn’t Warren’s camp who leaked their name. It could have been Raphael or Aiden. Hell, it could have even been Marcus.”

“How can they call what happened in Albuquerque a terrorist attack?”

“How else would they explain it? Things like that just don’t happen, Emma. People will reach for the easiest explanation.”

“But what about the earthquakes? Terrorists can’t do that. How do they explain those?”

If he told her much more, he’d give away that he’d known about the media’s explanation of the incident. And that he’d withheld the information with her. But she deserved to know. “They called it a new high-tech weapon. The national security level has been raised to imminent.”

Emma’s eyes widened with understanding. “You knew this and you didn’t tell me?”

Will reached for her arm, but she shrugged him off. “Emma, what good would it have done?”

She stood, taking a step away from him. “That wasn’t for you to decide, Will!”

“I knew what you would do. Just what you’re doing now.”

She glared. “I’m not a child, Will! You can’t protect me from the truth.”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Sighing, he ran a hand through his hair, leaning his elbows on his thighs. “Look, I suspected they would pin what happened in Albuquerque on a terrorist group, but I worried it would get pinned on some fringe group who had never caused any real trouble. At least with the Cavallo, we know that not only do they deserve the incrimination, but the members probably aren’t even alive to care after Aiden and Alex finished with them.”

Emma shook her head, looking away from him. “That’s not the point, Will!”

“What
is
the point, Emma? That you don’t think you’ve beaten yourself up enough over what happened? Does it ease your pain to smother yourself in guilt?”

“That’s not fair! You didn’t destroy half that city!”

Will sat up and said with an icy calm, “No, Emma I didn’t. I just murdered forty kids and listened to them scream as they burned to death.”

She sighed, her shoulders relaxing as she closed her eyes. “You didn’t murder them.”

“And you didn’t murder those people in Albuquerque.”

He could argue with her about this all day long and it wouldn’t change a thing. Nothing could take away her guilt but the passage of time. Unfortunately, time was a luxury they didn’t have. Will stood and eased toward her, grabbing her hands. “Do you remember that night in the cornfield when you asked me if you would ever stop seeing the face of the man you shot?”

“Yes.” She choked on the word, looking down.

He dropped her hands, and tilted her chin up, staring into her eyes. “I told you it would always be there, but it would ease with time. Remember?”

She nodded, tears filling her eyes.

“This is the same thing. What I did in Iraq is always with me. Every day. But something makes the pain more bearable. Do you know what it is?”

“No.”

“You. Your love for me. Your belief that I’m worth saving. You make the pain bearable. Let me do the same for you.”

She buried her face in his chest.

“All of this is going to get worse, Princess,” he whispered into her hair. “You have to find a way to accept the pain and the guilt and move forward, otherwise it’s going to eat you alive. If you can’t do it for yourself, do it for Jake. You’ll never save him if you don’t.”

The newscaster’s voice broke into their moment. “Meteorologists are still trying to explain yesterday’s freak storm in Napa Valley.”

Emma pulled away from Will and turned her attention to the screen.

“A tornado touched down yesterday afternoon in the Napa Valley, killing twenty-five people. While the tornado itself is an odd occurrence, the path it took is particularly unusual.” Footage of rubble strewn across the landscape appeared. “The tornado appears to have jumped from an F2 to an F5 within a matter of moments right before destroying a house. Then it returned to an F2 status until it struck another home as an F5. And as though that wasn’t strange enough,” —the footage switched to an aerial view— “after the tornado destroyed the first house, it’s almost as if the funnel cloud’s path purposely sought out the homes it destroyed. Then just as abruptly as the storm appeared, it disappeared.” A meteorologist’s face filled the screen. “We’ve never seen anything like this. There were no colliding fronts, no indication that anything like this would happen and consequently no warnings were issued.”

Will tensed. “Alex.”

Emma’s face paled. “No, it was Jake.”

He paused for several seconds. “Why do you think Jake did this?”

“Because this afternoon, right about the time that tornado touched down, I felt Jake. He was afraid and he felt guilty.”

“You know Jake would never purposely hurt people.”

“No, he’d never do something like this on his own, but he’s with Aiden. Aiden might have forced him to do this.”

“Why?”

“Maybe as practice, like you and I have been doing? Testing his abilities?” She grabbed Will’s arm. “But we know where he is now! And we know that the two of us together are more powerful than Aiden. We can go get Jake.”

“Emma, think this through. I know that sounds like a good idea and you know I want nothing more than to go get Jake, but what if that’s Aiden’s plan? What if he’s trying to lure us out and separate us before the end and steal the book? This could be a trap. ”

“I don’t care, Will! He has my son!”

He gripped her arms. “I know and I want to get Jake too, but we have to be smart about this. We think we’re stronger together, but we don’t know for sure. We need more practice before we try to attack. Otherwise we might get both us killed, and that won’t do Jake any good.”

She nodded but refused to look at him.

“Let’s get some rest, wake up in the middle of the night, practice and then move on. We’ll move closer to Napa Valley so if we think we’re ready, we’ll be close enough to strike.”

“All right.”

“Don’t get your hopes up, okay? You know I’ll try, Emma, but I can’t promise anything.”

“I know.”

***

The sounds of bird calls and the trickling stream were amplified in the dark forest. The sun wouldn’t rise for another hour, but Will stood next to the creek, manipulating the water. It was safer this way. They were less likely to have someone stumble across them, and they could practice then leave in the daylight, driving to the next location. They’d done this two nights in a row without problem, but Will had a feeling they were pushing their luck.

Emma had practiced some, but Will still wasn’t satisfied with the amount of practice they’d done combining their power. While Emma wasn’t either, she knew their choices were limited given her desire to stay in Northern California now. Also, she insisted he needed more practice since his power was so new to him. But his practicing had been at the expense of hers, and Will planned to change that tonight. He wasn’t sure how happy she’d be driving out of California into Nevada in a few hours. He needed to test his ability to find water when none seemed available, and she needed to use her power without fear of creating a forest fire. Not to mention, they need to practice together without limitations. Of course, using their powers in the real world would come with a higher price, but they’d worry about that when they got there.

Emma sagged against a tree with her eyes closed, clutching her stomach. The backpack with the book hung on her back. She’d been practicing making small fires in a straight line using the undergrowth but had stopped several minutes before.

“Emma, are you okay?”

Her eyes opened, but shadows covered the rest of her face. “I’m fine. Just tired.”

“You look like you’re more than tired.”

She pushed away from the tree with a start. “I’m fine. Can we leave it at that?”

But she wasn’t fine. She was exhausted and sick more often than not. She claimed it was nerves, but Will was worried. Her supernatural healing properties should have cured her of any virus or infection, leaving him to wonder what was really wrong.

“Emma, why don’t you go back and lay down for awhile? You’ve done pretty much all you can. I’ll practice a little while longer, then we can go.”

She hesitated. “Are you sure?”

He expected more of a fight from her, so her response made him even more anxious. “Yeah, we need to move somewhere more open for you to practice next. You go back and rest so you’ll be ready to work hard tomorrow.”

She hesitated again, looking toward the cabin then Will. “Okay.”

“Can you get back all right?”

“I’m not six years old. I know where I’m going.”

“I meant finding your way in the dark.”

“I can find it just
fine
.” She started to stomp off, but Will ran after her, the underbrush crunching beneath his feet.

“Emma, wait.”

She stopped and turned around to face him, a hand on her hip. “What?”

The darkness hid most of her face so he had trouble reading her emotions. “Maybe I should go back with you.”

“Why? So you can baby me some more? I’m fine. Stay and practice. We need you to know what the hell you’re doing.”

“Do you want to leave the book here?”

“So you can get it all wet?” She turned and headed for the cabin. “I’ll see you later.”

He watched her disappear into the darkness, worry needling the base of his skull. She was probably right. He was being overprotective. Returning to the stream, he began to practice again. But he couldn’t shake the feeling that something was wrong.

***

Emma shook her head as she trudged back to the cabin. She had no idea why Will put up with her temper. She hadn’t meant to snap at him, but her frustration had gotten the better of her.

Their schedule was wrecking havoc with her hormone-riddled body, exacerbating her already raging nausea. Although his coddling irritated her, Will was probably right. She needed to go back to the cabin and sleep. She didn’t want to be dead weight, but that was what she had quickly become. She might have the power of fire at her disposal, but it did her little good if she was too busy throwing up to use it.

The nausea hadn’t been this bad with her last pregnancy and she knew that it was a good sign for the health of the baby, but she wondered whether it mattered. She was doomed. Her goal was to make it to the end just long enough to help Will and Jake become the two who remained. The way her body had betrayed her the last few days, she now wondered if that was possible.

When she emerged from the edge of the woods, twenty feet from the cabin, she stopped, her senses on alert. An undercurrent of power rippled toward her.

Someone was there.

She let the energy wash over her as she decided on her best course of action.

Alex.

Surprise over the fact that she could recognize him lasted a fleeting moment, before succumbing to a spike of fear. Then the fear faded—not fleeing entirely, but not overwhelming her. Of all the elementals, Alex was the best possible one for her to face. If she got close enough to touch him, she could subdue him since her power overrode his.

“Alex, I know you’re there.”

He stepped away from the shadows of a tree, his hands stuffed into his front pockets. “Long time no see, Emma.”

“Not long enough.” Should she keep him close to her cabin or draw him into the woods?

His eyes fell on her backpack. “You have something I need.”

She put a hand on her hip, hiding her fear. “That again? This is getting old.”

“Didn’t your mother teach you that it’s nice to share, Emma?”

“My mother was a drunken whore whose middle name was
selfish-bitch
, so guess again. And then you’ve met my father.”

Laughing, Alex slid his hands from his pockets in a slow, smooth movement, taking several steps toward her. “Come on, Emma. You’re wasting your time with Will. If you really want to save Jake, join with me. I’m his father. Who better to have by your side helping you?”

She kept her surprise in check. Alex obviously didn’t know that she and Will had joined. Would it be to her advantage to keep it a secret? Did Alex even know that Will was Marcus’s son? “I take it you had the same dream explaining the new rules for the end. That’s why you’re here for the book.”

“While that was an informative get-together, I’d like to see it for myself, if you don’t mind.”