The Lost (16 page)

“They are aware of the threat now, so we need to be circumspect. We must not raise alarm until we are ready. The Quinchus wish to approach him peacefully and speak with him,” Andres instructed, in keeping with the change of plans they had decided upon earlier that night with Kellen and Selina.

“Yes, my captain,” Lucas replied, pumping his right fist to his chest in a salute ingrained in him after decades of service.

Marcus gripped the wheel tightly and turned his head for only a second to ask, “What are we to do?”

“Follow for now and find out what we can about the woman.”

“The woman?” Marcus questioned, his voice rising with worry. “What about the man? Adam?”

“The Quinchus have decided to go talk to him, so we must not endanger him.”

With a nod, Marcus drove onward. It was not his place to question the Quinchus’ orders, but he was a warrior, and the thought of allowing a Shadow to gain the upper hand left him troubled. Trying to contain his doubts, he followed the Bentley as it rolled along the quiet streets of a cool spring night.

Bobbie glanced in her side-view mirror again. The Jeep was still on their tail. It was the same kind of automobile as the one from this afternoon that they had followed to the mansion in Sea Girt. She had noticed its headlights almost as soon as they had turned out of Adam’s driveway.

Glancing nervously at Adam, she realized he had seen the Jeep as well.

“They’re back,” he said.

“It’s time we did something,” she replied, and whipped out her cell phone.

Adam quickly reached over and covered her hand with his. “What are you doing?”

“Calling for help. My brother and cousin are cops.”

He shook his head vehemently. “I can’t have the authorities involved.”

All her life Bobbie had respected those authorities, but she understood. For people like Adam, people who were different, the institutions she cherished could be a threat to their existence.

“Let’s see if they really are following us. That’s a pretty popular brand of car in this area. Make a left up there.” Bobbie pulled down the passenger-side sunshade to reveal the mirror. Opening it, she angled the mirror so she could keep a better eye on the Jeep.

After they turned, the Jeep did as well. Understanding what she wanted, Adam made a series of turns, and each time the Jeep matched their actions.

“Unlikely that they’re just out for a cruise, wouldn’t you say?”

His jaw tightened to iron and through gritted teeth
he said, “This could turn dangerous. I don’t want you involved.”

Bobbie appreciated Adam’s concern, but she could take care of herself, and despite her desire to avoid conflict, she wouldn’t leave him alone to fight. “Unless you plan on tossing me out the door of a moving car, I am involved. And it seems to me that we can either run or find out what they want.”

Adam shook his head. “They’re unpredictable. Different.” Deadly, he wanted to say, but didn’t want to spook her, although as their gazes skipped across each other as they looked back toward the Jeep, he knew she understood.

“Different like you?”

Adam recalled the shocks brought about by their touch. How they had weakened him. Maybe they were like him that way, but different in a decidedly dangerous way.

“I would never intentionally harm anyone,” he answered, and took one hand off the wheel, brought it to her cheek for a fleeting caress.

She looked away apprehensively and motioned to the boardwalk and buildings of the Avon Pavilion just a short distance ahead of them. “Up there to the right. There’s room to make a K turn and check them out.”

Adam slowed and began the turn, but the Jeep didn’t decelerate at all. “Get out of the car,” he shouted, and streaked through the air to escape the driver’s side as the Jeep bore down on them.

The 4x4 screeched to a halt just a few feet from the bumper of the Bentley as Bobbie hurried around the car to stand beside Adam, who stood in the middle of the road.

“What do you want?” Adam called out.

Bobbie realized the car couldn’t pull around them to go straight and the street was too narrow for a quick U turn. The occupants of the Jeep had little choice: either answer Adam or figure out how to make a run for it.

Suddenly, the Jeep surged forward, heading directly for them as they blocked the street.

“No,” Adam shouted from beside her, and thrust his hand out, pointing it toward the 4x4. She caught a quick glimpse of light coalescing in the center of his palm before a sphere of silver-blue light exploded from his hand and collided against the front fender of the Jeep. The blast of power deflected the Jeep from smashing into them and shoved the vehicle into a row of parked cars.

Stunned motionless, Bobbie waited beside Adam as the occupant on the passenger side stumbled out of the car, bleeding from a head wound. The man dropped to his knees, obviously in distress.

“He needs help,” she said, and instinctively took a step toward him, although Adam shot out his hand to stop her. As his forearm brushed her, a slight shock registered. She glanced at him and realized his aura was visibly huge and glimmering wildly, the threads of silver and red wriggling in a sea of blue, his emerald eyes gleaming a shocking neon green.

The wounded man sagged slightly as she moved, but at the last moment, he shot his hand out in her direction, and before she could react, he released an orb of energy.

Bobbie screamed as the ball smashed into her and tossed her back several feet into the side of the Bentley. Pain lanced through her back with the impact, but the pain was nothing compared to the web of energy
circulating through her body. It fried along her nerve endings, making her muscles spasm. Her legs gave way as she lost control.

Adam raced to Bobbie’s side in a blur of light and slipped his arm around her. A weird aura of battling red and blue shimmered all along her body as she twitched uncontrollably from the shock and pain ravaging her body.

She couldn’t speak. Couldn’t warn Adam as the injured man got to his feet and looked toward them, blood oozing down the side of his face. He raised his hand and pointed it at her once again, as if sensing she was the weak link.

Adam sensed the danger from the immense drone of power coming from behind him. He turned, realized what was about to happen, and placed himself in front of her, absorbing the force of the energy blast. He reeled for a moment as the power scorched his nerves, until anger erupted in his core. With a loud cry from deep in his soul, he raised both hands and suddenly there was a direct line of energy from him to the bleeding man, driving him to the ground.

The wounded man jumped and shuddered like a fish in its last dying throes on land, the power from Adam shocking him over and over.

The driver of the van finally came around the front of the vehicle, likewise injured. As he saw what was happening, he tossed an orb of energy at Adam, but it was like being stung by a gnat now that the full capacity of the power stored within him was at play. It had consumed him, and in his brain there was nothing but raw emotion and the static from the power, growing ever more powerful, so strong that it started to bleed into his eyesight, almost blinding him.

It took Bobbie’s anguished cry to finally break into his consciousness and drive back the deadly energy. As he regained command he released his hold on the man.

Bobbie had slumped to the ground without his support, the earlier tremors racking her body reduced to an occasional twitch, her once-bright-blue aura shimmering weakly and now tainted by threadlike streaks of red and gold. Her body gave one final jump and then she lay there, sickeningly still.

I
gnoring the two men who had followed them, Adam kneeled beside Bobbie, praying beneath his breath that she would be all right. He leaned over her, calling her name over and over again. Her aura sputtered off and on, but at least it was still present, which gave Adam hope.

He fell to his knees, unmindful of the men across the way, as he defensively placed his body between Bobbie and them. Then he eased toward her body and splayed his hand on the thin cotton over her chest. Beneath his palm, Bobbie’s heartbeat raced erratically. Only a shallow rise and fall of her chest confirmed that she was still breathing.

“You’re alive, Bobbie. Alive.” He willed power from his core to his hand and then into Bobbie. Before his eyes, her aura intensified, spread onto his hand like blood seeping through his fingers. A snowy glow developed beneath his palm as the silver and red tendrils in his aura leached downward, rooting themselves in her body. Against his
palm came the unexpected draw of energy, making him light-headed as his power was sucked into Bobbie.

Beneath his hand, Bobbie’s breathing lengthened, grew more regular. After one abrupt, hitched breath, her eyelids fluttered open, revealing tawny-colored eyes clouded by confusion and pain.

The wail of approaching sirens registered in warning.

Adam withdrew his hand, fearful that others might be able to see the display of light and energy. As he did so, the connection between them provided resistance, as if his hand was covered in tacky glue that kept on pulling him back. With a forceful yank on his power, he broke free and Bobbie jumped, experiencing the disruption.

He helped her sit up and, wide-eyed, Bobbie peered at him, but then her gaze was pulled over his shoulder.

“Bobbie,” he heard a man say and looked back to find a policeman headed their way, followed by two other officers. A duo of squad cars, lights flashing, had closed off both ends of the street adjacent to them. A dozen or more people milled about the vehicles, drawn from their homes by the sirens and lights, and maybe even by the noise of the earlier crash and disruption, Adam surmised.

As the officer approached, Adam noticed that he had lots of brass up at his neck and assumed he was in charge.

“Chief Ryan,” Bobbie said, and rose from the ground with his help, still shaky from the energy blast that had struck her, but alive.

She knew the man? he wondered for only a moment as his knees wobbled. He lurched back to rest against the fender of the Bentley while keeping her tucked close.

“Are you okay?” Bobbie asked, laying a hand on his arm, but he shrugged it off, afraid of touching her. He barely
had his power under control, and weakness had erupted at his core. He didn’t know how long he could maintain command.

Hurt traveled like quicksilver over her features until she schooled them. He hated that he was causing her so much pain.

“What happened?” the police chief asked.

Bobbie returned her attention to the officer. “We were turning around when the Jeep came out of nowhere. It couldn’t stop in time, lost control, and plowed into the parked cars.”

The chief narrowed his eyes as he considered her. Hooking his thumbs through the loops of his black gunbelt, he said, ”How long have I known you, Bobbie?”

“Almost all my life,” Bobbie said, and shrugged. The simple movement seemed to cause her discomfort as a grimace shot over her features. Adam wondered if it was from her war wounds or from the blast, since every muscle in his body ached and felt stiff. He was uncertain whether his state was the result of being shocked by the weird orbs of power or of offering his energy to help Bobbie.

He rubbed at his arms and suddenly something came to him, almost as if the electricity had jogged loose a memory. He had felt like this once before—the morning he had awoken with his father-to-be next to him.

“Adam? Are you all right?” Bobbie questioned, but she didn’t reach for him again, aware that he wouldn’t welcome any contact at that moment.

“I’m okay. I just remembered something.”

“Something about the incident?” the police chief pushed, his head cocked at an inquisitive angle.

Much as Bobbie had lied before, Adam did as well.
“Yes. There were two men in the car. Hurt. They ran away after crashing.”

The police chief didn’t appear to buy it. With a stony glare at the two of them, he said, “Why don’t you tell me what’s really up?”

“It’s the truth, Chief. Believe me,” Bobbie pleaded as she wrung her hands.

With a resigned sigh, the chief pushed back his hat and scrubbed his baldness. Leaning close, he said, “If I find out there’s something else going on, being a Marine hero and having law enforcement connections won’t keep me from tossing you in the can, Bobbie.”

“There’s nothing else to say, Chief,” she replied, and the officer didn’t press any further. After getting descriptions of the two men in the Jeep, the police chief released them.

“We should go before the chief changes his mind,” Bobbie said, and turned to him, but he was torn.

The lies had come so easily to her. And then there was the powerful pull of energy as their auras had merged when he had been helping her. It had felt as if she was draining life from him, but as he met her gaze, there was only concern there. Concern for him.

He held up his keys. “I’ll drive you home.”

But as he took a step, he felt incredibly weak and dizzy, so much so that he had to lean against the bumper once again. She shook her head and snagged the keys from his fingers. The wobble was back in his knees when he stepped toward the Bentley, but she immediately tucked herself beneath his shoulder, offering support without hesitation. Seemingly back to normal.