Deadly Expectations (63 page)

“Washroom,” I whispered to Paul.
 
He was talking so he just nodded and patted my leg as I got up.

I quickly used the restroom then walked out into the mall.
 
Still focused on the man I had no trouble catching up with him.
 
As I followed him I thought about the logging roads up the hill from my home.
 
I knew them well from dirt bike riding with Kenny.
 
I pictured a section a couple of miles in … a hidden footpath that led about fifty feet from the gravel road.
 
Kenny and his friends and I would go up there and drink some afternoons.
 
That was years ago and the path would be grown over.
 
It could be months or years before anyone found him there.
 
We passed a few more stores as pressure grew in my back.
 
I stumbled as I was pushed from behind … it wanted to take me.
 
I would drain the man on the trip; take more than I needed to get back.
 
He wasn’t worth sleeping off.

I took his elbow and smiled up at him.
 
He was surprised and tensed his arm but then he smiled back at the sweet thing holding him for a moment before recognition appeared on his face.

“Hello handsome,” I said.

“Uh, hello.”

“What do you say we go somewhere more private?” I asked him.
 
I kept my focus on our destination.
 
It was hard to smile with the pain of the pressure but all I would need was contact with him when he made a move on me and we would be in the forest alone in the dark.
 
He put his other hand on my forearm and gripped it tightly.
 
I put a little fear in my face and pulled on my arm like I was trying to free it but he grinned and tightened his grip.

“Be quiet,” he said.
 
“I have nothing to lose if I kill you here.”

I stopped pretending to struggle and walked with him.
 
He wouldn’t phone anyone until he was done with me.
 
He guided me into the first service hallway we came to.
 
The back doors to some of the stores went down one side then he took me around a corner to another long hall where there were more doors.

“Damian wants you for himself but he can’t be choosy.”
 

I stared back.
 
He spun me around so he had my forearms and pushed me hard back into the wall then he pressed his lips into mine.
 
I relaxed in his grip and kissed him back.
 
There was a low growl in his throat as one of his hands let me go and dropped to his pocket.
 
I heard his knife snap open and as he drew his arm back I let the pressure take us.

Blue light filled the small forested clearing.
 
My hand appeared to burn with it.
 
I had taken so much from him it must be the excess … hopefully enough to get me back so I didn’t have to spend any of mine.
 
I located him quickly and turned to face him, taking a couple of steps back.
 
He was disoriented and confused.
 
I held my palm out at him so the brightness toward his face partially hid me in the blind spot behind.
 
He didn’t say anything.
 
I reached into my sleeve and took the steak knife.
 
Then I let Andre out.

The man stepped toward us as we stepped to the right.
 
He made the first move, lunging to the left while bringing his knife up at my belly, but the light had hidden Andre and
me
and he misjudged how far away I was.
 
He was close, inches to spare, but not close enough.
 
Andre spun while his weight was still shifting and sliced deep into his side as we danced away back out of reach.

The man swore and caught my hair swinging behind.
 
Andre and I were stopped in our tracks by the sudden tug at the back of my head.
 
The man slashed at us again and scored a hit low on my back through my shirt before I could get out of the way.
 
I didn’t feel it but my skin started to feel warm, trickling down to my butt.

He laughed as I stuck my blue right hand at his face causing him to flinch and let go of my hair, his hands to his face in defence.
 
I kicked him in the nuts as hard as I could and he grunted and dropped to his knees.
 
Something pulled in my stomach, just a muscle.
 
Andre ignored it and ran the serrated blade deeply along one side of the man’s neck.
 
Warmth covered my hand.
 
His blood was black in the blue light.
 
He brought his hands up but his stomach was heaving from the blow to his crotch.

Then Andre made the knife go just as deeply into the other side of his neck and we disappeared back out of reach again.
 
I lowered my arms and stood, breathing hard.
 
It was too late for him to protect his neck.
 
The blackness covered his light coloured clothes and I could hear the air leaking out where it shouldn’t.

“Good night,” Andre said as the man sat back on his feet, then after another half minute his head leaned to the side, its shifting weight toppled him over.

The only sound now was my own breathing.
 
Andre was gone.
 
The man’s body was partly hidden in the underbrush.
 
Thick
salal
and fern.
 
Nobody had been here in a very long time.
 
A quick check of my pocket verified that my phone was still there so I slipped the knife back in my sleeve and pulled out the phone.
 
No Signal.
 
I thought as much.
 
They used radios up here.
 
No cell service.
 
That reminded me to check his.
 
I found the phone in his coat pocket and quickly took out the battery so nobody could find him by the signal just in case some miracle allowed it to be picked up.

I studied my palm.
 
Paul had pulled it away the last two times so I never had the chance.
 
My skin seemed to bubble and roll beneath the air that appeared to glow just above the surface, like a pot of water only thicker.
 
Where a bubble burst blue light would arc around to the back of my hand.
 
Cautiously I touched it.
 
There was no heat or tingling.
 
My skin felt normal.
 
I put my palms on my cheek - no difference - then ran my fingers through my hair.
 
Other than the blue light there was nothing in the feel of my hand that would give it away.

I opened the palm on my left hand and tried to take the energy back.
 
It flowed in for several minutes only to reappear back in my right hand.
 
It was extra … more than I could hold.
 
I would have to focus well on where I would return to.
 
Didn’t want to show up in the lobby with that … or the cut on my back.

There was still pressure left from the jump here so I focused on the bathroom in our hotel room.
 
I could clean up there and not worry about blood on the carpet anywhere else.
 
My eyes closed as I concentrated.
 
Long minutes passed.
 
First a nudge from behind, then I caught myself as I tripped over the man and almost went face first into the brush next to him.
 
There was pain now from the top of my head down my spine and in the cut on my back.
 
I saw nothing in my mind but the hotel bathroom just the way I had left it.
 
When I was sure that the pressure would take me whether I did anything to help it along or not I squatted down then suddenly straightened my knees and disappeared.

And with great relief found myself where I wanted to go.
 
I could have been walking several miles down the logging road in the dark now using my hand as a flashlight until I had enough cell
signal
to call Ray for a ride if it hadn’t worked.
 
Then what?
 
Steal a car and try and jump to the
parkade
below?
 
My palm still glowed though less brightly.
 
I opened my other hand up and took in as much as I could but I still couldn’t make it all go away.
 
Damn.
 
I put the seats down on the toilet and sat resting my head on my arm on the counter.

My cell phone rang and I got it out of my pocket.
 
Paul’s number.
 
If he was calling then he was worried, which meant Patrick had told him what I was doing.

“John,” I said.

“Rachel,” he said.
 
Keith’s voice in the background.
 
I couldn’t make out what he was saying.
 
I waited but Paul didn’t say anything.
 
Likely deciding how to give me both barrels over the phone.
 
It hadn’t occurred to me until now how pissed he’d be.

“I’m in our room …
bring
Keith.
 
He needs to hear about this complication.”

“Keith …
come
with me,” Paul said but he didn’t say anything to me.
 
He was less than ten minutes away.
 
Much less if he hurried.

“Do we have the stuff for stitches?” I asked him.
 
Ray had packed a fairly large first aid bag for us.

“What?
 
God damn it Rachel.”

“Patrick—,” I started but he interrupted.

“What Patrick said doesn’t make any sense.”
 
Paul must have been nearly running.
 
I could hear his hard breathing.
 
I put the phone on speaker and put it on the floor.
 
I was suddenly faint and eased myself down to the
lino
on all fours resting my head on my crossed arms.
 
After a minute I could hear them running down the hall and the key in the door.
 
My phone beeped twice as he hung up.

“Anna?” he called as they stepped in.

“Bathroom.”

He pushed the door all the way open as I carefully righted myself.

“Jesus,” Paul said as he knelt in front of me.
 
He took my face in his hands and started looking for the cut.
 
I realized that the man’s blood had been on my hand when I’d put both hands on my cheeks to compare how they felt, then I’d run his blood through my hair.

“That’s not my blood,” I glanced up at Keith and told him.
 
“Nobody is getting to your child.”

His brows pushed together.
 
He didn’t know what to say.

“Are you hurt?” Paul asked; all business.
 
“You said something about stitches.”

I reached around and pulled up the back of my shirt.

“He got hold of my hair and managed to tag me here before we could get out of the way.”

“We?”
Paul asked.
 
He was looking at the cut now.

“I let him out to fight,” I said.

“Keith, can you get me the red bag from the closet?”
 
Then he muttered when Keith was around the corner.
 
“If I could I’d kick his ass for letting you get hurt …”

Paul helped me back up on to the toilet seat so I was facing the counter again.
 
Keith brought him the bag.
 
I noticed that the blue had faded more from my hand so I kept my palm down on my leg.
 
Good.
 
Less to explain.

“Paul, will you please tell me what just happened?”

“Anna,” Paul said, “how ‘bout you tell us both.”

He started going through the bag and getting things out.
 
I pulled the bloody steak knife out of my sleeve and dropped it in the sink.