Death 07 - For the Love of Death (20 page)

Deegan

“Stop it!” Parker says from a distance, irritation thick in those two words. “I had to put the Skopamish to rest. They were being... unruly as hell.”

Brad rises from his perch next to my beaten form. “Why the hell is that?” He toes my side and I cringe in pain.

He smiles in delight.

I turn to look at Parker. At least he doesn’t touch me.

“Because”—he shakes his head in disgust and impatience—“she is Native American and for reasons unknown, it goes against the grain to watch a tribeswoman get beaten while bound.
Brad.
”

Brad misses the sarcasm, but I catch it like a perfectly thrown pitch.

“Son,” the elder Thompson says quietly, “however fun this is for you, torturing this girl, let’s get on with it. Lure the brother, then we can hop to this other world…” He looks to Parker for confirmation, and I swallow past the pain in my throat.

“Flip,” Parker corrects absently.

Blink,
I offer inside my head, with a sad hiccup.

“I want to do her, Dad.”

I snap my eyes open. His are steady on me, every bit of purpose there for me to see.

I gulp painfully. Panic like oil slithers underneath my skin.

The elder Thompson chuckles. “I appreciate that, Brad, I do. But if what Parker says is true…”

“It is, of course. I’ve given you the proof.”

“You have.”

Silent understanding exchanges in the looks they pass each other. I grit my teeth, taking it in as maybe useful for later, as I keep one eye on perv Brad.

“Then you can wait, son, until we get to a world where the stations I have our unlimited in their capacity… to serve.” He smiles.

I despair.

Yet deep inside me, a pulse of hope beats. I send it out like music. To Pax. To Mitch.

Hopefully, one of them hears my distress signal.

Before it's too late.

*

Caleb

We set Garcia's unconscious body inside Gramps
ʼ house.

“Things are so chaotic right now, they won't find him until later.”

Gramps closes the sliding glass door on the deck. “Good thinkinʼ, Mitch.”

Mitch nods impatiently. “Let's find Deegan.”

I look at Dad. “You going to be okay here with Mom?”

He nods, and walks to the end of the deck.

Mia, Sophie, and Archer are staying with my folks. Jonesy, Bry, Tiff, and John look at me.

“We’re in.”

Dad limps to me.

“Are you okay?” I flick my gaze to the tear in his pants from the bot blast, but already my sights are on Deegan. I can hardly think about anything else.

He blows it off with a dismissive wave. “You need to find Deegan. My leg’s bothering me from the piece of ALB shrapnel it took.”

Dad is making a bad joke. I grab him and give him a fierce hug. He’s a big-ass dork, but I love him.

“Don’t let your anger rule you, son.”

Our eyes meet. His have been wise my entire life.

Easier said than done.

A beat of silence thumps between us
.

“I’ll try.”

Mom leans her head on my shoulder. I fight tears as a wave of gratefulness washes over me. She’s alive.

Wings of urgency beat inside my skull
. Deegan.

I move away, and Gramps falls into line beside me.

I can’t leave Jade behind, so I take her with me, though the alternative is barely better. Either way, she is more vulnerable than I’d like.

We move through to Grampsʼ escape route. The gang who remains behind will see to my parents. Archer will claim ignorance in his clever way.

I’m not fooling myself.
Archer gains us precious time
.

When they discover Garcia, they will be after us. Bobbi can stay and play former cop
cum
intermediary
.

Clyde will run shotgun, as he has many times before.

There will be no get out of jail free card to save us from some of the transgressions we've perpetuated.

*

Pax

“Argh!” I grunt like a pirate on the plank, falling to my knees.

Mom rushes up behind me.

“Don't,” I say more sharply than I mean to.

My eyes warn her.

Dad’s widen then slit to anger. He clenches his fists. “What have they done to Deegan?”

I can’t tell them. It’ll make Dad an instant lunatic.

I give Gramps a full look. He nods, knowing it’s bad.

It’s so bad I feel the underlying emotion in her voice as she drumbeats telepathic Morse code.

Mitch groans, putting his hands against his own skull as if he’ll crush it.

Dad jerks me up to my feet, and I outweigh him by twenty. Adrenaline and all that happy shit.

“Where is she? What’s going on?” he shouts.

“Caleb, whoa. Ya crazy ass, let the kid breathe.”

Dad turns on Jonesy like a shark. “You don’t have kids, so shut the fuck up, Jonester.”

Jonesy punches him. Dad should see it telegraphed for a mile, but he’s so in his head he doesn’t know what year it is.

Dad staggers, falling hard on his ass.

Jonesy whips his fingers out, swinging his hand back and forth as though it hurt like hell.

Clyde smirks. “Thank you, Mark.”

“Don't mention it.”

Oh shit.

Dad gets up like a bull before it charges. Mom moves in tight, wrapping her arms around his waist. “Don’t, Caleb. Let them help you. Stop this anger. It won’t help Deegan.”

Dad looks at Jonesy with pure hate. Jonesy stares unflinchingly back then settles on giving Dad the bird. “Get your shit together, Hart.”

Bry stands next to Jonesy. “Yeah.”

John flanks them. His eyes agree.

Dad strokes Mom's hair, his breaths growing more even.

“We cool?” Jonesy asks.

Dad nods, moving his jaw back and forth. “I'm just—I'm just so damn scared I can't think.”

Clyde nods. “We understand, Master.”

He shakes his head. “I don't know if anyone does.”

Tiff grabs his shoulder, giving it a squeeze. “Just wish I had a kid to feel this way about.”

Mitch lifts his eyebrows and Tiff's gaze slims on him like a laser beam. “What?”

He sighs, looking vaguely conflicted. “Let's move.”

“You got something to say you big dead lug, say it.”

His lips thin. Uncle John seems to be considering he might have to bring it because of Tiff's mouth when Mitch blows us away.

“What you said made me think about a question Deegan asked me.”

Tiff stares at him.

Dad begins to walk in the direction we'd been moving toward, ignoring us all.

“What question?” Tiff asks more softly, her head thrown back as she looks up at Mitch.

Dad's too far away to hear.

“If you could be fixed in my world.”

“Fixed,” Tiff says, as if someone just sucker punched her.

He elaborates, “Have babies.”

Tiff shakes her head as though clearing cobwebs. She grips his forearm, his tat bleeding out from underneath her fingers.

“What was your answer?” Her eyes search his.

He leans down, gritting his teeth. “Yes.”

I jog, leaving the two of them and their revelations behind.

I hear Mitch’s heavy treads as he races behind me.

* 

Deegan

From the ground, I lean against the shins of a zombie Fake Parker raises.

“They're coming,” one of the suits says quietly.

He’s a new Random, with only one ability. They call him The Ear.

He can hear things of all frequencies and distances.

He hears my family coming to save me.

Inviting their enslavement.

What I don’t expect is how much I want to die. I feel like if I didn't exist, then my family wouldn’t be in danger.

Mitch appears through the forest first.

The graves stand all around us like a creepy Stonehenge.

Mitch doesn’t rush headlong to me, though I feel him like balm inside my skull.

I sigh. The first non-pain I can manage.

Pax, the parents, Jonesy, Clyde, I think his name is Bry, and Gramps pile up behind him.

Dad goes straight for Parker, and gravestones tumble like rotting teeth, settling on the grass in his wake.

Bodies pour forth and I close my eyes, too beaten and weak to do anything but watch.

Then the Parker of this world slips from behind the group of guys… and Tiff Weller.

Her presence makes me smile. Drunk or sober, I love her vitality.

Fake Parker throws his head back, laughing. “This is simply perfect. Hello, self, nice to make your acquaintance.”

Gramps says, “You know, you have real potential to be an asshole.”

“I see that,” Parker says.

My brother’s gaze flicks to me.

I’m coming, Dee.

No, it’s a trap, Pax.

We know, doesn’t matter. Dad’s off the rails, and we’ve brought all the big guns to help.

Old Thompson nods at the Nulls and my lungs deflate, the Parkers squaring off.

Pax and Mitch stare at each other. Mitch breaks for me, and I find the strength to lurch to my knees. But when I pitch forward, my hands can’t brace my fall.

Half my fingers are broken.

The zombie footrest behind me stoops to pick me up and I roll slightly out of reach.

Mitch's eyes meet mine upside down as I lie on my back.

Tears pour from my eyes at his rage over my injuries. He grabs the zombie as it reaches for me.

Legs stream past my vision as he tosses the zombie across the open field of upended tombstones. It plows through three grave markers like dominoes, shattering the granite with the impact. The last one glances it solidly, embedding the broken shards through its chest.

It struggles to disengage from the marker, to get back to me.

Mitch scoops me off the ground.

Randoms in suits move toward our position.

Then something remarkable happens as the dead leak from the ground to choose their master.

I take the dead’s undecided energy and heal myself by accident, but most of it pours into Mitchell.

His eyes glow as he faces the enemy.

I've never seen anyone look as human as he does in that moment.

I wiggle my new fingers, so happy not to be broken anymore.

Pax strides to Dad, thinking to help.

The Randoms give their signal.

I scream too late.

Hands snap together like locks.

Mitchell can’t get out of reach fast enough without dropping me.

He never would.

They knew that.

Just as they knew my family would come for me.

Fake Parker smiles at Real Parker.

He turns, the horror of realization striking his face like sunlight.

Twilight descends in the second everyone stands connected by the dead, the ground—each other.

Pax's unique second eyelid descends and he blinks.

Images waver in front of me like a mirage.

No.

Only Mitch's arms keeping me safe are real.

THE END