Deliverance (21 page)

Chapter 27

L
eisha breathed in the briny air as she and Tafari walked the deck, hand in hand. They’d all eaten dinner together, except for Nikita because the sun was still up. Afterwards, Samantha had wandered off to find the vampire while Rinwa and Liam had stuck around for games provided by the crew.

As they’d played cards at a table and Leisha had explained the rules to Liam, she couldn’t help thinking that this is what a real family was like. Spending quality time with each other and simply having fun. Not always on the run, fighting off the enemy, and drinking blood to survive.

Tafari pulled her out of her thoughts. “Why is it that everyone goes out of their way to tell you how young you look for having a nine-year-old boy, but when I tell them I am the father, they just smile pleasantly?”

“Well, you do look older than me,” she pointed out.

Tafari pulled her closer into his side. “Not that much older.”

Shrugging, Leisha attempted a teasing tone. “Maybe it’s because you’re black.”

“And exactly what does that have to do with anything?” His light tone matched hers.

Leisha searched for something to say, but laughed instead. “I’m too happy to think of something witty and sarcastic.”

Her husband stopped and leaned against the rail, pulling her against him. “And I had this great argument about how black people age better, so that would be why no one questions that I am Liam’s father.” He sighed dramatically. “I suppose I will have to store that away for another debate.” Leaning down, he kissed her gently.

After he pulled back, Leisha sighed and laid her head against his chest. “It feels so nice out here.”

“It is a pleasant night.”

She stood up and leaned against the rail, their shoulders touching. “That’s not what I meant. I’m talking about feeling carefree. Having fun with each other. When does that ever happen?”

Tafari looked down at her, his eyes thoughtful. “True. Though if we look back five years, I had planned to kill you, eventually. Now, we are on the same side, even if we rarely get to be carefree, as you put it.”

Strands of blonde hair blew across her face and Leisha pulled them out of the way. “I guess that’s a good way to look at it. Seeing the progress we’ve made in such a short time.”

Tafari smiled and slid an arm across her waist. “Imagine where we might be in a few years from now.”

The vampire frowned. “Where can we go from here?”

“What do you mean?” He studied her face.

“I mean, this is never going to stop. Us running from the immortals, the vampires, and the U.S. government. It seems to me the only thing we have to look forward to is having other countries tracking us down to experiment on us. Or finally getting captured by one of our many enemies and ending up dead.”

Her husband’s brows drew together. “You sound like such a fatalist. Where is the fight that I am so accustomed to seeing in you?”

Shaking her head, Leisha leaned into him. “It’s not that I’ve lost my steam. I’ll fight to the death, Tafari, especially to protect my family. But I just feel like we can’t keep running. Something is going to come to a head and explode under the pressure. I just wish we knew what.”

He stroked her hair down her back. “I wish I had the answers, my love. But all we can do is prepare as best we can, and hope that it is good enough.”

The ten-day cruise went by
too fast in Leisha’s opinion. But it was her hope that the family bonding she’d seen between Liam and Rinwa would continue as they traveled together to the next hiding place.

“I still think it would be better if we split into three different groups and traveled separately to our destination,” Rinwa muttered just before the boat docked.

“I agree,” Leisha said. She glanced over at her daughter, standing next to her on the deck. “But I can’t allow us to get separated again. I would worry too much.”

Rinwa rolled her eyes before slipping on red sunglasses with little white lips scattered over the frames. “I thought you were supposed to be an oh-so amazing tactician, never allowing your emotions to get in the way.”

“I don’t expect you to understand, but I expect you to do as I say.” Leisha could practically hear Rinwa rolling her eyes behind her sunglasses again, but the immortal didn’t make any snarky comments. Something Leisha considered to be a great improvement.

Nikita appeared on the other side of her. He was covered in a light rain jacket with the hood pulled low over his face to keep him out of the sun. Leisha knew it was only temporary protection and they’d already made arrangements for a hotel nearby until the sun set.

While they waited for dusk, Tafari would go out and rent a minivan. Once darkness settled, the plan was to drive through Oregon and California. She hoped it wouldn’t take more than two or three nights to get to Mexico.

The ship reached port around five in the morning. The crew announced that the first wave of guests could leave at eight. Leisha made arrangements with the captain for their little group to leave at seven instead, just before sunrise. They hurried to get Nikita out of the sun as soon as possible.

Leisha noted Samantha clinging to his arm while sending concerned glances his way. She’d observed the two of them touching each other in very comfortable, intimate ways lately. Leisha had wanted to say something, but didn’t want to bring it up in front of Rinwa or Tafari. She knew all too well what their reaction would be if they knew Nikita and Samantha had taken things up a notch in their relationship.

Once in the hotel suite, Samantha followed Nikita into the room with no windows and they closed the door.

Rinwa pulled her laptop out and slid her sunglasses off as she booted up the computer. “Those two are certainly more than just chummy.”

Tafari nodded grimly, but didn’t say anything as he walked into the kitchen.

Liam sat next to his sister. “They’re in love with each other.” He met Rinwa’s gaze. “His feelings are genuine. Don’t try to interfere. You’ll only make things worse.”

Rinwa’s eyes widened in innocence. “What makes you think I was going to interfere?”

This time, both Liam and Leisha shot her pointed looks.

“First off, you always say what you’re thinking, dear daughter. And secondly, Liam does read minds.”

Sighing, Rinwa turned to her computer. “I was being sarcastic. But fine. I’ll leave them alone.” She glanced up. “But if I actually see them kissing, I can’t be held accountable for what I say or do.”

The wait for sunset went by quickly. Leisha and Tafari had packed everything into the minivan before it was even close to twilight.

“Rinwa already made reservations for a hotel,” Tafari said as he pulled the vehicle into traffic. “We should reach it a few hours before daybreak.”

“I don’t want to be too much of a bother,” Nikita stated. “You can place a blanket over me if you would like to keep driving.”

“There’s a lot of us squeezed together in this car,” Liam said. “We all will appreciate a little break from driving for a while.”

The drive was fairly quiet for the first few hours, with Rinwa and Samantha occasionally arguing over what music to listen to.

They were an hour outside of Medford, Oregon. Since it was early morning and well before dawn, there was little traffic to contend with. A helicopter sounded overhead in the distance. Leisha tilted her head as she focused on the aircraft. It was coming toward them. She strained her ears to listen to the heartbeats of the passengers. It was difficult with the loud roaring blades of the helicopter, but she was able to determine that the heartbeats were too fast for humans, even if their adrenaline was pumping.

“They’re vampires,” Nikita stated just as the helicopter came into view for the others.

Leisha and Rinwa cursed at the same time. Everyone pulled out a gun with the exception of Liam. His claws steadily grew to their full length.

“They tracked us through the cruise line somehow,” Liam informed them. “These vampires are part of some elite team. Their orders are to leave no one alive.”

Nikita’s jaw clenched. “They must be the assassins I trained.”

“Come again,” Leisha said at the same time Samantha cried, “What?”

“They’re a team I trained just before I defected,” Nikita explained grimly. “I taught them the most cutthroat ways possible.” He looked at Samantha with worry in his eyes. “They get the job done, every time. No matter what.”

Leisha scanned their surroundings as she tried to think. “And their job is to kill us.”

“Yes,” Liam confirmed. “Though I’m their main target.”

With her stomach feeling like it was lined with lead, Leisha put an arm around her son. “Not if I—”

“I know, mom.” He gave a reassuring smile. It struck Leisha how calm he was, given the situation. “You’ll get us out of this. You always protect me.”

She blinked back tears and focused on surveying the empty land around them. There wasn’t much. They were on the highway inland from the ocean, with only two lanes. Some trees were scattered around the cement dividers, but there wasn’t much else. A large abandoned building came into view. It was fifty yards from them and looked like it was crumbling, but at least it would give them some cover.

Leisha started to point to the building and opened her mouth to ask Nikita’s opinion when she heard a particular whistling sound. It was unique, and she knew with sudden alarm what it meant. A bomb.

“Tafari!” she screamed as she grabbed the steering wheel from her husband and veered the vehicle sharply to the right. The van teetered on its left side just as a huge explosion came from directly behind them. It was deafeningly loud, making Leisha’s eardrums burst. She clamped hands over her bleeding ears as the heat wave crashed through the windows of the van, shattering all of them. The force of it made the van fly into the air, spinning at an angle.

From her peripheral vision, Leisha saw Samantha screaming as they continued to careen through the air, broken glass circling around them all like a whirlpool. Nikita held his arm over her torso and Rinwa closed her eyes in what looked like an effort to stay focused as the immortal gripped her weapon tightly. Glancing down through her tumbling hair, she saw that Liam was pushing himself back into his seat, his claws already extended. He met her gaze and nodded solemnly.

The flipping car slowed, then finally creaked to a halt. Leisha’s ears were pulsing with pain, but she could feel herself already healing. She unbuckled and pushed open her door, then turned around to get her son and make sure Tafari and the others were moving. She didn’t need hearing to know that the vampires weren’t far behind.

With blood leaking out of his ears, Nikita was out and pulling Samantha along behind him. He pointed to the building Leisha had spotted before the explosion. She had to read his lips, but it was easy enough to determine that he was telling everyone to run in that direction.

The vampires and Liam slowed their pace so that Samantha and the immortals wouldn’t get left behind. The ground was uneven, and Samantha tripped several times, only to have Nikita hold her up. Leisha wondered why he wasn’t just carrying her when she spotted blood spurting out of his left shoulder. His arm was useless on that side.
Let’s just hope it heals enough before those assassins catch up to us.

Everyone was sporting wounds of some kind, except for Liam. Leisha was relieved to see that besides ripped clothes and a few scrapes and bruises, he came out of the explosion unscathed.

They were forty feet from the side of the crumbling building when two vampires came at them from the left, swords already scything through the air. Rinwa blocked the first sword, but the second vampire thrust his weapon through her gut.

“Rinwa!” Leisha gasped as she clutched Liam to her side and held her gun up, ready to fire at the attackers. Tafari was there first, however, and decapitated the one who’d stabbed their daughter with his short sword. Another vampire used his leg to trip Tafari, his sword raised to impale the dark-skinned immortal as soon as he would hit the dirt. Rinwa was there before the blade could nick Tafari. She fought the assassin as though she had no injury whatsoever and cut off his head as Tafari was getting up from his fall.

Leisha could hear steel clashing against steel and realized it wasn’t coming from the direction of where Rinwa and Tafari were fighting with the vampire. It was behind her. Leisha turned to see Nikita fighting two vampires at the same time. His arms thrusting out in opposite directions to block their onslaught. The assassins had the same stoic expressions Nikita usually wore, as if being sent out to kill was no different than reading the news over breakfast. Samantha was limping toward Leisha, her head constantly turning back to check on Nikita.

“There are twenty more headed this way,” Liam said beside her.

Swallowing, Leisha nodded. She had to get Liam and Samantha into the building and put together a strategy to escape the coming vampires.

Her eyes darted about and she kept her gun hand up and ready as she led the two toward the building. There weren’t any doors that she could see, but there were a lot of boarded windows. Handing Samantha her gun, she rushed over and grunted as she pried the boards off the nearest window.