Redemption (26 page)

“That’s not enough.” Marcus stood behind Emma, his face grim.

Alex fell against Will, his legs buckling.

Marcus moved closer. “It’s not enough for him to bleed to death. He still might recover.”

Blood poured down Will’s arm, into the water.

Terror filled Alex’s eyes, but Will steeled himself. This had to be done.

Emma stepped through the hole, holding her hand against her side with a grimace. “What do we have to do?” Her voice was cold and distant.

“To disconnect his power, you’ll have to make sure his brain is no longer functional.”

“Like a zombie?” she asked, her voice expressionless. She kept her gaze on Alex’s face.

“Not exactly like a zombie.” Marcus paused. “If he has enough brain damage, he won’t be able to regenerate. Even though you feel your power in your chest, the true source is your brain.”

“Emma,” Alex pleaded. His voice was weak and his face pale. “Do it. Kill me and you’ll get my power.”

She froze.

Will watched in horror. That was the last thing he expected Alex to say. Was it a trick?

Emma’s eyes hardened. “Why would you offer that?”

“If I die now, I’ll live in the afterlife. If I die later…you heard the shadows.” His voice was raspy and he coughed, spitting up blood. “I have to say the transfer words first. The words to give you my power. You can use it to save Jake.”

This didn’t make sense. Why would Alex do this? “Don’t trust him, Emma,” Will growled.

She ignored him. “You found the words in the book?”

Alex grinned, blood running from the corner of his mouth and down the side of his face.

Emma looked over at Marcus. “Is it true? Can he do that?”

Marcus’s face hardened. “Yes, but…It can’t be you. It has to be Will.”

“Fuck that.” Emma pulled Will’s gun out of the back his jeans before he could stop her. She turned off the safety and slid back the rack, pointing the gun at Alex’s head. “Start talking.”

Alex’s eyes narrowed with hatred. “I thought you were the decent one of all of us.” He closed his eyes and a glow emitted from him.

“
With the shadows as my witness,

I give to you an irrevocable gift

Power and elemental control,

And all that is mine
.”

Alex closed his eyes and mumbled in a language Will didn’t understand.

The glow around Alex faded and Emma’s knuckles whitened as she gripped the gun. “Now?”

“Emma, wait!” Marcus took a step forward. “It’s a trick!”

Alex grinned but hatred darkened his eyes. “You don’t have the guts.”

Emma pointed the gun at Alex’s head and pulled the trigger twice in rapid succession, her hand jumping with the recoil.

Alex fell from Will’s grip, landing on his back in a pool of water.

She stared down at him, the gun still in her hand. “Is that enough?”

Marcus shook his head. “Let Will do it.”

Her hand still extended, she continued to stare at Alex. “I asked if it was enough.”

Will reached for her hand. “Emma, I’ll—”

She looked up at him, anger making her eyes glow with power. “You’ll what? You’ll do it? The fuck you will.” She shot Alex in the head three more times. “Is
that enough
?”

“Yes, Emma,” Marcus said softly. “It’s enough.”

“Good.” She threw the gun onto the floor.

Will bent down to pick up the weapon. Alex lay on his back, his eyes wide open, blood swirling in the water around him. “Thank God he’s dead.”

Emma looked into Will’s face with dead, vacant eyes. “There is no God, Will. Only cold-hearted elemental deities. And now I am one.” Emma spun around and walked down the hall.

“Emma, where are you going?”

“To get my son.”

***

Jake sat on his bed, playing with the shadows.
Shreveport
. He was sure he knew this place. He’d lived here with Mommy.

The shadows crept onto the bed and tickled Jake’s fingers, but Jake sighed, bored with this game. Tickling shadows didn’t make Aiden pay. And more than anything else in the world, he wanted to make Aiden pay.

Not more than everything. He wanted one thing more.

Mommy.

Pushing himself off the bed, he looked out the window. He watched the cars driving down the street past the hotel. There weren’t many at this time of night. He wondered what he could do to them from up here in his room. Could he blow them off the road? Could he blow them up?

The door opened and Antonia walked in, startled to find Jake out of bed.

“
Jake
. You need your rest,
mijo
.”

“I’m not tired.”

“I will sing you a song.”

He almost argued with her, but after he’d turned her away earlier in the day and made her forget his mark, he’d felt bad and needed her comfort. He needed her to love him even though he was bad. Because he was bad.

She helped Jake climb back into bed, tucking the covers around him with loving hands.

A tear fell out of Jake’s eye, down his cheek, and into his hair. “I’m a bad person, Antonia.”

Her eyes widened in surprise, but she leaned forward and kissed him on the forehead. “No,
mijo
. You are not bad. Your
abuelo
makes you do bad things, but you are a good boy. A sweet boy. I know this in my heart.”

Jake wished he knew it. He wasn’t so sure anymore.

“No more talk of this. You must sleep. I will stay with you if you want.”

He wanted her to stay, almost as much as he wanted his mother, but she couldn’t. He had work to do. “Just one song. Please.”

A soft smile lifted her mouth. “You have always been such a sweet and polite boy.” She brushed his hair as she started the tune that she always sang. He never understood the words, but her soft voice and the fingers in his hair always made him feel safe and loved. He basked in her love and pretended he was safe, even if only for a few minutes.

When she finished, she kissed his forehead again.

He wrapped his arms around her neck and whispered into her ear, “I love you, Antonia.”

She pulled him into a tight hug, rocking him to her body for several seconds. “And I love you. I will do everything in my power to keep you safe,
mijo
.”

He nodded, tears burning his eyes. There was nothing she could do to keep him safe. But he might be able to save her. He pushed her away. “I’m ready to sleep now.”

“
Si,
Jake.” She left the room, closing the door behind her.

He waited a few minutes before sitting up again and calling to the shadows. “I need to learn more,” he whispered into the darkness. “I need to become stronger.”

A ray of moonlight shone through the window, onto a spot in the middle of the floor. The shadow figure that had given Jake his mark grew out of the light.

This was even more than Jake had hoped for.

“You are about to get your wish,” the shadow cooed.

The other shadows circled around the figure, dancing in and out.

“What do you mean?” Jake whispered.

The figure lifted an arm from its solid form, holding up a finger. “Shhhh, you must wait. It is almost done.”

“What is—”

“Shhhhhhh.”

Jake sat cross-legged on the mattress, growing impatient, until a soft light glowed from the figure.

“It is happennnninnnngggg…”

Shadows weren’t supposed to glow.
What
was happening?

A bright light, brighter than anything Jake had ever seen before burst from the figure, blinding him. Something sharp stabbed into Jake’s chest and he flew backward onto the bed, his body becoming white-hot with energy.

Energy that came from the shadow.

He felt stronger as raw power rushed through his blood. He had to release it or he might combust. “I… I…”

“You will become accustomed to it.”

“But… how…” The flow of energy made it difficult for Jake to speak. “How did this happen?”

The shadow bowed. “It is a gift and has been passed on to you.”

“A gift? From who?”

“From your father. But it comes with a steep price. Do you accept?”

Jake had never felt so alive. He could do anything with this energy. Even destroy Aiden. “What is the price?”

“You must take the life of the person who took your father’s life.”

Jake’s heart thudded. “Alex died?”

“Yes. He gifted his power to you.”

“He can do that?” Jake wasn’t sure if he should feel sad or not that Alex was dead. He didn’t feel sadness, just a weird emptiness in his chest.

“Yes, but you must agree to destroy the person who took his life. Do you accept?”

Jake paused. “Who killed him?”

“It is a secret until the end.”

Jake stuck his tongue out of the corner of his mouth as he thought this through. The end? Was that the final battle Aiden had talked to Raphael about? And who could have killed Alex? It couldn’t be just anyone. The person had to be strong. Alex had power. So much power. That meant that the killer had to be Aiden. Or Raphael. Maybe even Will. Jake had already decided that he’d have to kill all of them.

“Okay.”

“You accept? Think long on this. Once it is done it cannot be undone.”

“Yes. I accept.”

The shadow nodded, then lowered its head. “Then tomorrow we begin.”

Chapter Nineteen

Will followed Emma out a back door into the alley behind the hotel.

Marcus fell into step beside Will. “She’s not handling this well.”

Will blew out a breath, his anger simmering under the surface. “No shit. She just killed a man. What do you expect?”

“I told you she’s not a soldier—”

Will clenched his fists at his sides, trying to keep his frustration and fear in check. “If you don’t mind, spare me the lecture. I don’t want to hear it.” Will’s pace quickened until he was next to her. “Emma, stop.”

She ignored him, walking toward the street corner. The vacant look in her eyes scared him.

“Emma.” He grabbed her arm and pulled her to a halt.

She stopped but didn’t face him. Her clothes were drenched, and water dripped from her hair onto her face. The bruises had already begun to fade, but she held her hand against her side. Her physical wounds were almost healed, but her emotional wounds ran much deeper.

“Emma, you did the right thing.”

Her chin trembled and her voice broke. “I can’t talk about this right now.”

“Okay.” But it wasn’t. Emma was far from okay. Will wasn’t sure she’d ever be able to live with what she’d done. And Alex was just the first.

She resumed walking, toward their hotel.

Will lagged back to talk to Marcus. “We’re headed to Shreveport. They’re taking Jake there next.”

Marcus nodded. “I figured.”

Will’s anger exploded. He shoved the heels of his palms into Marcus’s chest, slamming him into the wall. “
You know
? How the hell do you know about Shreveport?”

Marcus’s face remained stoic. “Aiden’s not the only one who kept an eye on her.”

The fact that so many people had stalked her for so long made Will sick. And even more furious. Will grabbed Marcus’s shirt and shoved him again. “Stay the fuck away from her.”

Marcus didn’t fight Will’s assault. “I can’t, Will. We need her. Especially now.”

Will released his hold and spun away. “So why didn’t you tell me what Aiden was doing when I saw you this afternoon? You could have saved us from all the drama.” He rubbed his forehead. “You could have saved her from
this.”

“Because I didn’t know this afternoon when I saw you, but when I heard about Jackson…”

Will swallowed, overwhelmed with the events of the last half hour. Why was he taking his frustration out on Marcus when it was Aiden and Raphael he needed to worry about? “If Alex had…Thank you for saving her.”

Marcus grimaced. “I’m not sure I saved her or delivered her to hell.”

How right was he? If Emma were angry or upset, or exhibiting any kind of emotion, Will would have felt better. “I’m not sure she’ll recover from this.”

“It’s only going to get worse.”

That’s exactly what Will was afraid of. He wasn’t sure Emma could handle worse, but there wasn’t anything he could do about it. Will’s frustration rose once more.

“There’s something you should know.”

Will was afraid to ask, but he’d had enough surprises to last a lifetime. “What?”

“Emma didn’t get Alex’s power.”

“What are you talking about?”

“At the very end, Alex transferred it to someone else.”

“Who?”

“I don’t know.”

If things weren’t bad enough, they’d just gotten ten times worse. “Could he have sent it to Aiden?”

“Your guess is as good as mine.” Marcus’s gaze trained on Emma, twenty feet in front of them.

“Who do you plan on representing Water at the final battle?”

Marcus grimaced, turning back to Will. “That’s an excellent question. And the answer lies in the fact that I insisted
you
kill Alex, not Emma. If you had gotten his power, you could have taken his place.”