Estranged (40 page)

She only spotted one Warden running
toward the attacks; more often than not, it was a group of police
officers armed with shotguns responding. Kalei watched as a third
group of police officers ran by, and she realized most of the
Wardens were stuck in Downtown and Tech Town. The people here were
on their own.

Kalei stopped. She looked at the panic
around her and realized she was needed here. But what could she
possibly do? Even as she scanned the area, she saw a half dozen
attacks in progress, and another half dozen officers who needed
help getting the mob under control. She couldn’t be everywhere. She
couldn’t save them all. She had to choose. It was a bitter reality
to swallow, but it was the truth. Kalei took a deep breath and
decided the best thing she could do for all of them was track down
Xamic and find out what he had done.

But as she looked across the street to
where he had been standing, Kalei realized he was gone. Kalei
cursed and sprinted through the crowd, pushing people out of her
way and climbing over the cars. There was an alley close to where
he had disappeared, so Kalei took a gamble and plunged into
it.

She rushed past dumpsters and a few
passed-out hobos as she rounded the corner, praying she hadn’t lost
him. Then she stopped short, spotting Xamic’s blonde head as it
disappeared through a trap door at the back of the building. A few
stacks of old tomato boxes and a small dumpster for disposing of
cooking oil told Kalei it must be a restaurant, and a high school
job in a kitchen told her that trap door must lead straight to the
basement where they stored incoming supplies. Either Xamic knew he
had a tail and he was trying to lose her, or he was up to
something. Probably an attack on whoever remained in the building.
Either way, Kalei had to get in there. It would be close quarters
in the basement, and probably her only chance to pin him down
before he could take off.

Kalei loosened her pistol from its
holster, praying a full cartridge of hollow points would be enough
to slow him down, and then followed.

The stairwell took them past the back
end of the storage refrigerators, through a sort of service tunnel,
and then down a second set of stairs. Kalei waited at the top to
make sure the coast was clear, still unwilling to spook him just
yet. When she heard sounds of a struggle, she stopped waiting. She
rushed down the stairs, gun drawn. “Hey!”

Kalei reached the bottom in time to
see a uniformed Warden fall from Xamic’s grasp. He turned and
smiled at her. “You made it!” Before Kalei could say anything, he
disappeared into a door on the far wall.

Kalei made her way across the small
room, careful not to collide with the dozens of racks crowding her
on either side, each one fully stacked with kitchen supplies. She
slowly stepped through the doorway, her finger dangerously close to
the trigger.

The room on the other side was a small
living room. A couch, a TV; the full set-up. A hallway at the back
led off to what was presumably bedrooms and perhaps a bathroom.
Xamic sat comfortably sprawled on the couch.

Kalei opened her mouth to speak when
she heard, “What’s going on?” Fenn walked out of the hallway,
wiping his hands with a cloth towel.

No. No.
Kalei sprinted for the door.

“
STOP!”

Kalei stopped at Xamic’s command, one
hand on the doorframe. Her whole body was shaking.

His voice was calm and mocking.
“Before you leave, Kalei, I want your advice. Which one should I
kill first: Teia, Kas, or Fenn?”

“
You bastard!” Kalei
turned around and opened fire. Xamic wasn’t on the couch anymore,
and tufts of cotton puffed into the air as the bullets ripped
through it.

“
Kalei?”

Kalei tried to ignore Fenn. She
searched for Xamic and found him in the corner by the TV. Before
she could redirect her gun, he closed the distance and knocked the
gun from her grasp with a blow that felt like a sledgehammer.
Unarmed, Kalei switched to throwing fists, but he easily dismissed
them all with casual blocks. With every block, Kalei grew
increasingly desperate, but Xamic appeared to be getting bored. She
threw a quick right hook at his face, but he dodged low and
followed up with a swift blow to her gut. Kalei doubled over,
clutching her abdomen.

Before she could recover,
she heard the safety clip at the back of her helmet
click
as Xamic said,
“Let’s get rid of this. It’s time for Terin’s little flower to
bloom.” Fresh air rushed at Kalei’s face as her helmet was pulled
off her head.

Kalei coughed and then straightened to
retrieve her helmet from Xamic, but instead, she found herself
facing Fenn. She froze. He froze.

She had a hard time believing it was
him. It had been so long since she had seen his face, her memories
had done little justice to—

Kalei’s terror returned. He took a
step toward her, but she stepped back, trying to get away from him,
but unable to tear her eyes away from his. She felt herself being
pulled into them, she felt her arms aching for his embrace. But she
couldn’t. She had to get away.

Kalei took another step back, but her
foot caught on something, pulling her leg from under her and
sending her crashing to the ground. She heard Teia yell, “Auntie!”
Before Kalei could turn her head, she felt Teia’s small arms around
her neck.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

Broken

There was so much happiness. Not a
high, not ecstasy, but happiness. Wholeness. She was home again.
She heard Fenn shout out, but then he was with them too. And Kas.
They were all finally together again. Everything was perfect.
Everything was right. Kalei opened her eyes. She wanted to see
their beautiful faces. Kas and Teia lay across her left leg, faces
turned away. But Fenn was on her right, eyes fixed on her with an
open, dead stare. Dead.

Kalei screamed. She pushed them off
and scrambled back, but then she slumped over and heaved as her
stomach tried to vomit. Kalei crouched there, retching, crying, her
darkness ripping through her in complete chaos.

“
Kalei! Run!”

Kalei looked up and saw Xamic and
Terin struggling outside the apartment. Terin had both of Xamic’s
hands in his own, his body between Xamic and Kalei. He repeated,
“RUN!”

Instead, Kalei charged at them. Terin
cursed and tried to get in her way, but Xamic let go of one of
Terin’s hands and sidestepped as the teen lost his balance. Kalei
crashed into them both and they all went down.

In the tumble, Kalei felt Xamic’s arm
close around her wrist. At some point, while she was out of it,
both of her gloves had come off, and now his skin pressed against
hers. She felt his darkness coming for her. She raised her
defenses, but they were so small, so insignificant next to the mass
of violence mounted against her.

“
NO!”

Terin’s hand was on her other wrist.
His darkness rushed through her and met with Xamic’s head on. Terin
cried out. Kalei thought it was from the collision, but then saw
Xamic’s left hand still clamped onto Terin’s right. She felt a
subtle “snap” echo from Terin’s darkness.

Kalei froze. She recognized that
sound. She looked to Terin, his face contorted in a mix of pain and
surprise. Then his darkness was rushing out of her, pouring through
her left wrist and into Xamic. Terin was fading. His hand
frantically tried to pull away, but Xamic wouldn’t relinquish his
grip.

Yet Terin still had time. There was so
much darkness in him. He had about as much as Xamic, maybe even
more. When pulling his hand away didn’t work, he tried to redirect
the flow, attempting to push it into Kalei, but his darkness was
sucked through Kalei and into Xamic’s other hand.

Terin’s reservoir began to run out.
Kalei felt his presence dwindling. She felt all his sorrows, all
his regrets brushing past her as they rushed up Xamic’s arm.
Terin’s head dropped. His body sagged. A last whisper of darkness
fled past Kalei’s heart.

He was gone.

Kalei felt Xamic release her. She
heard him step away as he screamed and hooted and shouted. It
didn’t feel real. None of this could be real. She felt as though
she was drifting away from this world, Xamic’s antics happening in
some distant place, the screaming in her heart happening to someone
else...

Xamic cried out, “DAMN!”

Kalei pulled her eyes away from
Terin’s limp form and saw Xamic jumping around the room, knocking
cans and utensils off the shelves. His hair was full black now, not
a hint of blonde left. Bursting with energy, he sprinted at a wall,
running so fast that he ran up it, made it halfway across the
ceiling, and then came crashing back down again. The fall didn’t
seem to faze him, though. He jumped up to his feet and stretched
out his neck and arms, bouncing back and forth from foot to foot
like a boxer ready to fight, or a dancer getting ready to dance.
His grin seemed to be permanently fixed onto his face.

He said, “This is perfect! So fucking
perfect!”

He laughed and turned that grin onto
Kalei. As he approached, she stood up, looking away from the eyes
that greedily appraised her skin.

Kalei held out her hand. “Here,” she
said dully.

Xamic’s eyebrows came together. As
though it were a joke, he laughed and asked, “What?”

No emotion. No rage. No sorrow. She
had nothing anymore. She was nothing. She continued to hold out her
hand. “This is what you want. Take it.”

“
Hey! Wait a minute!
There’s supposed to be anger here! What about revenge? I just
murdered your grandfather. You just murdered your dear husband and
two little nieces.” He shoved her and got right into her face. “How
does that make you feel?”

She had no response for him, emotional
or otherwise. She repeated, “Take it.”

He spun away. “NO!” He slammed a can
of peas off the shelf. He turned back, grabbed her by the shirt,
and picked her up, shaking her violently. “You’re Kalei Distrad!
You won’t stand for this! You want me dead. I know you do. You want
to kill me with your own hands.” He looked down at those hands and
grinned as he looked back at her.

She didn’t respond. She was none of
those things anymore. Her chest was one hollow cavern, stoic and
uncaring as a cold wind blew through.

The anger returned to his face. He
slammed her into the shelf, knocking a cascade of first aid
supplies off the top and sending them crashing onto his head. A
plastic bottle broke open on his skull, a gush of clear liquid
pouring out onto his head and shoulders, releasing a strong scent
of alcohol as it fell. “C’MON, Kalei!”

Kalei didn’t give him a response. Her
eyes traced the pattern of wetness on his shirt as the liquid
expanded its reach across the fabric.

Xamic released her, grabbing a nearby
shelf and throwing it across the room. He threw his arms up and
screamed with rage. “No. NO! You’ve ruined the moment. You’ve
ruined it!” He grabbed a second shelf and threw it into the
first.

Kalei’s eye alit on an old Zippo
lighter sitting on a box near her hand. She picked it up. Fire
seemed like a fitting thing to bring into this world. All
consuming, all erasing fire. This was it. She was finally going to
die. Xamic was going to kill her, and she wouldn’t have to be an
Estranged any longer. There was nothing left for her
anyway.

Then she remembered what
Marley had said to her on the roof, how he had been so mad at her
for sitting there, waiting to die.
Right
now, you’re the only one I trust to help me protect my
son.

She let the cold nothing in her heart
encase her like a suit of armor. She decided she wasn’t going to
let Marley’s kid die, and she wasn’t going to let the man who
killed Fenn live.

Xamic’s hair was still dripping wet,
the drops falling across his torso and legs. His back was to her as
he raged and kicked at the shelves. She flicked the lighter open
and tossed it at him.

His body went up in
flames. The fire gave a quiet
whoosh
and flew towards the ceiling,
devouring him entirely before slowing to a steady, ferocious
burn.

Blinded by the sudden light, it took a
moment for Kalei’s eyes to adjust. She shielded her eyes and
blinked several times, and when her vision returned, she lowered
her hand to find Xamic in the center of the room, his body writhing
in the flames, his clothes reduced to scraps that were already
falling away in the hot blaze. He turned and glared at her with
lidless eyes, his mouth fixed in a silent scream.

But he was not dying. Even as the
flames consumed his flesh, it regenerated and returned, caught in
an endless cycle between exposed muscle and fresh skin, muscle,
skin, muscle, skin...

Kalei walked toward him. She plunged
her hand into the flames and closed it around his neck. He had so
much darkness now. She couldn’t believe he was capable of holding
so much. Now that Terin’s had combined with Xamic’s, it was a force
to behold. But it was still finite, still limited, and at the
moment, it was spread throughout his entire body, actively battling
the insatiable flames. Only a paltry amount remained to protect his
heart.