Fate and Fury (49 page)

As he leaped over another boulder, the baby he carried in a special harness across his chest made a small cooing sound. Compared to his booted footfalls, the noise was nearly inaudible. But panic soared through him nonetheless. If that coo was the predecessor to a fit of screaming or crying, he knew all would be lost.

Thankfully, there was no more noise from the baby. His gaze darted across the shadows as he plowed on, knowing that he couldn’t see nearly as well in this environment as his enemies. They were, after all, suited to shadows.

Finally, his goal came into sight. The light surrounding the location would not be visible to his pursuers, but it stood out to him like a beacon. It was a site used only in extreme emergencies because the results of using it varied so widely.

This certainly constituted an emergency.

His breath leaving him in sharp bursts, he ran straight for the light. And as he got to within feet of it, he nearly failed to notice the weapon aimed for his midsection.

For the baby.

He leaped. The weapon struck his leg, but missed its target. As he once again hit the ground, pain speared through his injured leg, bringing him to one knee. He did what he could to cradle the newborn as he fought to regain his footing.

But he wasn’t quick enough. This time, he felt the lance of pain sear through his lower back. He knew, out here in the wilderness as he was, it was a fatal blow.

He had failed. And as a result, it would be the child who suffered.

Pulling on every bit of experience and training he had, he staggered away from his enemy toward the light only he could see. Moving with as much speed as he could manage, he unsecured the baby from the harness. He heard the sound of the weapon singing through the night air as it targeted his neck. He brought forth his second power even as he made one final lurch and thrust the baby into the light with a brilliant flash.

As he died, he could only hope his final act was enough to protect the
future of his kind.

PART I:

Discovery

Excerpts from the Great Foretelling:

“Before there will be greatness, there will be failure. It is how those failures are ultimately overcome that will shape the future of all kinds.”

“It will be one of us who serves as the bridge…a guardian with patience and the capacity to learn and then teach that which we have been incapable of learning from the beginning of time.”

The blow to her head hurt more than just Amber’s pride, especially because she should have seen it coming. She had expected her opponent to follow the jumping inside crescent kick with a jumping toe kick, but he changed it up on her, throwing in a roundhouse combo that shoved her off-balance and sent her straight to the ground.

Get your head on straight, Hopkins
, she thought, irritated with herself for being distracted enough to take the hit.

Springing back up, she bounced on the balls of her feet and once again faced her opponent. Ignoring the noise and spectacle around her, she focused exclusively on the battle at hand. This time, when her opponent came in with a spear-hand strike, she countered with a high block, then used her forward momentum to step in close and take him down with a double leg sweep.

“Break!”

At the instructor’s command, Amber immediately straightened rather than following the move with her finishing strike. She reached down to help her sparring partner, Timothy Mason, to his feet. He grasped her hand much as he had many other times over their years practicing together. Because they were about the same height, they were often paired together for sparring.

“Good job, Hopkins,” their instructor, Mr. Jenkins, said. “Keep that up, you just might take the trophy at nationals next month.”

Amber bowed, as did her fellow black belts, as the class was dismissed. Collecting her gear and slinging her well-worn equipment bag over her shoulder, she moved to the front of the karate center. Catching the proud gaze of Mrs. B—as she and her fellow foster and best friend, Gabriel Reid, called their guardian, Clara Burke—she felt a flush heat her cheeks.

“That was excellent work, Little Star,” Mrs. B said, using the nickname she had given Amber several years ago.

“Thanks,” Amber said, shifting her bag uncomfortably over the praise. Then she ventured, “Since I’m all sweaty, I probably shouldn’t be going to get my hair done.”

“Nonsense.” Mrs. B’s humored expression told Amber that her guardian was on to her. “Lulu will shampoo your hair. I want to do this for you. You only get one end-of-the-year pool party when you’re about to graduate high school, after all.”

While Amber knew quite well that there were worse things in life to endure than spending half the day at a beauty salon, she was rather hard-pressed to think of any at that moment. Despite her qualms, she soon found herself shepherded into Mrs. B’s car and driven to her guardian’s favored salon.

Within the hour, she sat in a chair undergoing what was to her a very foreign—and very female—ritual. A fuchsia smock covered the shorts and
T-shirt she had changed into, and her hair, having already been snipped and trimmed into what she was assured was a flattering style that didn’t remove too much length, was now covered in some kind of goop she had been told would “bring out her natural highlights.” The steady hum of a hair appliance and the chatter of female voices buzzed around her ears as the sharp and pungent scents of permanent and highlighting solutions assaulted her nose.

She still couldn’t believe she had agreed to this. Mrs. B sprang it on her before the haze of sleep had cleared her brain, and Amber figured that had a good deal to do with it.

“It’s time for me to give you your graduation present, Little Star,” Mrs. B had said that morning as Amber downed her usual breakfast of orange juice.

“Present?” Amber echoed as though this was an unheard of concept.

“Yes, indeed. Gabriel isn’t the only one who can acknowledge the hard work you put toward passing your final exams. I’d like to take you to the salon for a nice haircut before the pool party.”

“Aw, come on, Mrs. B.” She felt her shoulders hunch in discomfort.

“Don’t give me any nonsense, child,” Mrs. B responded calmly as she sipped her morning tea and read the paper. She was ever the educated southern lady when she spoke, and she made sure her charges modeled themselves accordingly. If nothing else, it had gotten Amber straight A’s in English. “You are absolutely deserving of my praise and recognition. I don’t want to hear a word otherwise.”

It was eerie how Mrs. B got straight to the heart of the matter. Amber had frowned into her juice glass and wished futilely that Gabriel was already awake, then looked through her eyelashes at the woman who had raised her since she was twelve.

Sunlight streamed through the kitchen window and gleamed across Mrs. B’s reading glasses. The years had been kind despite the hardships she had faced. Sure, there was now a bit of gray sprinkled in her hair that hadn’t been there six years ago, but she otherwise appeared much as she had the day Amber first trudged through her door. Indeed, her constancy was one of the biggest gifts Amber had ever received, and all she ever wanted.

She supposed accepting a graduation present from the woman who had raised her into adulthood when so many others had passed on the opportunity was the least she could do.

“Okay,” she had said finally, trying not to sound too grudging. She even managed to contain her instinctive eye roll, but when she saw one corner of Mrs. B’s mouth rise, she realized she hadn’t quite passed it off.

And now here she was, sitting in the salon of Mrs. B’s stylist and friend, Lulu Medley. Aptly named Lulu’s Beauty Shack, the salon had been established in the basement of Lulu’s 1920’s home on Toombs Street in the hospitable, postage-stamp town of Palmetto, Georgia, not even fifteen miles from their home in Newnan. Amber’s apprehension over this experience was high enough since she hadn’t had her hair cut in forever, but when considering the fact that Lulu catered primarily to African-American clients—and Amber’s skin was pale as the moon—she held more than one internal debate over the wisdom of having caved to Mrs. B’s “gift.”

Fortunately, Lulu seemed to know her business. She had either sensed Amber’s reluctance the moment she opened her front door or had been coached ahead of time by Mrs. B. Her no-nonsense nod and knowledgeable scan of her client’s appearance served to ease some of Amber’s anxiety, and the offer of a Coke and a homemade chocolate chip cookie worked its own kind of magic. Before she knew it, Amber had changed her clothes and was being ushered into the stylist’s chair and draped in the fuchsia smock.

“Clara, you were right about her,” Lulu said now with a nod at Amber.

The stylist, obviously at a waiting stage, sat what some might term a sizable backside into a straight-backed chair near Mrs. B. The rather uncomfortable-looking seat was situated between the three salon chairs in the room and the small waiting area complete with a coffee table sporting magazines and photo albums. Since the room was probably not much bigger than thirty feet across, the comment was easily discernible.

Amber struggled not to squirm and dared not glance at the other stylist and client in the room. Because the second stylist was a younger, slimmer version of Lulu, Amber assumed she was her daughter. She seemed completely focused on working in the second client’s elaborate weave as they chatted about the client’s three children, but Amber sensed their eyes flicking to her at the comment.

Wishing there was something in the room to read besides
People
,
Ebony
or girly hair magazines (couldn’t they have even one
Spin
or
Rolling Stone?
), she drummed her fingers on her thigh under the smock and prayed for a quick end.

“Of course I am,” Mrs. B said in her steady and unhurried tone. She had been reading a new edition of
Southern Living
and paused to look up at Amber. They caught gazes in the mirror and Mrs. B smiled. “My Little Star has a lot of shine just waiting for the right polish.”

Amber felt the crinkle of her brow as she puzzled over the words.

“Oh, yes…speaking of polish, I want to give her a nice manicure and pedicure,” Lulu said. “My treat.”

“Why, isn’t that sweet of you, Lulu?”

Lord, would this ordeal never end? Amber had never in her life wanted to be fluffed and pampered like other females seemed to enjoy so much. It just seemed utterly impractical. Between karate and playing the guitar, she kept her nails short and unpolished. What good would a manicure do her? And the last thing she intended to do was show off her long, skinny, size-ten feet in some girly sandals. Sneakers had always been her shoe of choice.

How had she ever allowed herself to be talked into this? She was out of her mind for even thinking she would be able to follow through with going to this pool party.

“Lulu, while you finish up with Amber, I have a couple of errands to run,” Mrs. B said then, making Amber’s throat tighten in unease. She set her magazine down and got to her feet. “I’ll be back in a short while. Try to enjoy your time with Lulu, Little Star.”

Rather than risk speaking, Amber nodded and watched her walk out. It really wigged her out to be essentially abandoned in such an anxiety-inducing environment. But she knew that allowing herself to succumb to high levels of stress right now was a very bad idea. If her life followed its typical freakish pattern…well, with her eighteenth birthday soon approaching, things could get very bad very quickly.

Sitting through an unwanted beauty appointment would be the least of her problems.

“That’s a great woman right there,” Lulu said as she got back to her feet and walked over to give Amber’s hair an assessing look.

“Yeah,” Amber agreed. She checked her eyes in the mirror, looking for any signs of a forthcoming incident, and focused on controlling her breathing as her anxiety crested.

“She’ll sure miss you kids.”

Amber caught Lulu’s sharp gaze in the mirror, temporarily forgetting about her other concerns. “Mrs. B mentioned the trip to Alaska?”

She was referring to the long-awaited graduation trip that she and Gabriel had been planning for the past two years. Because she had always wanted to go to Alaska, Gabriel had vowed to go with her if she passed her finals. In truth, with as much as she hated school, his promise and dedication to their shared goal was what had gotten her through her recently-finished exams. There had been many times when the only thing that motivated her during the school day was the sight of Gabriel holding his hands up in the shape of a letter “A,” their silent signal to each other symbolizing the trip.