Relics (27 page)

“LJ, I'm not sure why you're so upset, but I don't think you should be driving. We'll drive you home,” Ally said soothingly.

“You freaks aren't driving me anywhere!” she yelled.

Ally paused in shock, dismay and hurt. “Then let us call a taxi for you. LJ, I mean it. I won't let you drive with your son in the car in the shape you're in.”

They stood nose to nose as Lynda-Jean moved closer.

“What do you think you're going to do?  Call the cops on me?” Lynda-Jean sneered at her best friend. None of us had ever seen her behave like this, although we knew she got belligerent when she drank.

Ally's voice was soft, but I heard the steel in it. “If that's what it takes to protect your son, then yes.” She lowered her voice even more. “LJ, what's wrong with you?”

“You're what's wrong. All of you with your stupid family. Most of all, those two freaks and that old bat and that other freak friend of theirs. He was right. There's something wrong with them.” She had pointed at me, Thulu and Nana Fae and seemed to be working up a good head of steam. I had no idea who “he” was. She turned to me. “It's all her fault. She's always been the super creepy one with her dead people and stuff. I couldn’t believe you people let her into your family. Her and her creepy grandmother.”

The yard was very quiet. Carter was crying softly, and I saw fear in his eyes. Erik turned and moved away, distracting Carter.

There was a sharp crack as a portal began to form. Swirling pastel colors moved as it quickly grew to over twelve feet. Everyone moved away from the area as three tall figures stepped through. They unfurled their wings and refolded them, but they still took up a large part of that side of the yard. I heard gasps from the others. The reality of a portal and Light Ones was more amazing and frightening than I would have thought.

They all topped eight feet in height, with faces of chiseled beauty. They looked like ancient statues come to life, except for their eyes. Their eyes were too big for their faces and were a faceted color, with no whites showing. Their skin was smooth and creamy white. One had flowing, white hair and was a bit bigger than the others. Another had hair and wings of soft brown, and the third had a pale gray coloring. The three of them stared at our group impassively.

The white-haired Light One waved his hand and all hell broke loose. A tremendous wind gusted through the yard, knocking me several feet across the grass, where I ended up against one of the tables.  I couldn't move at all.

I realized I was frozen by an immobility spell and guessed it was on all of us. Thulu had landed near me. The white-haired angel strode the few steps over to him, grabbed him with one hand and casually threw him through the portal. The brown Light One quickly followed through the opening. Before the gray one could make it through, he collapsed into glittering dust in front of the portal.

The white-haired Light One turned and glared at Aela, who had popped in front of me and hovered in the air in front of my face, an arrow aimed straight at him. There was nothing unsteady about her now. Apparently the immobility spell didn't work on her.

He looked past her at me. I tried to move and couldn't. I felt my muscles relax somewhat and got to my knees. Aela moved to the side of my face, her tiny arrow never wavering, teeth bared, menacingly. My brain was busy, trying to grasp the fact that Light Ones had invaded our barbeque, my husband had just been thrown through a portal, and my family was immobilized somewhere behind me.

Gabriel, I was sure it was Gabriel, moved to stand over me. Once again I was frozen in place, kneeling on the grass. He looked even more gigantic from that angle. I floated up a few feet, my immobile body several feet off the ground. Having no control over your body is a scary thing. He moved back to the portal, towing me behind him like some demented balloon. I hovered in the air a few feet away from the portal. I felt my face and throat relax and could move my face and head a tiny bit.

“Having one of those things here was a mistake.” He pointed at Aela, who had kept pace with me. His voice seemed to come from far away. The rest of the world was silent. I felt that I existed in some sort of bubble, alone with this creature and my tiny protector.

“Yeah, yours. Bring my husband back and the fairy will let you live.” At least my voice worked, even if I sounded a bit ridiculous. “Aela, we need him alive to get Thulu back.” The tiny fairy nodded, but didn’t take her eyes off her target.

Gabriel stared at me, threw his head back and laughed. The portal snapped out of existence.

“You will get your husband back, when you turn over all of the relics to me.”

“I can't do that!  I don't know how to find them.” A note of panic had set in.

“Of course, you do. You are a finder, so go find them.”

I became a bit hysterical, which explains what I said next. “You insane idiot!  I'm not the finder. Thulu, the man you just kidnapped, is the finder.” I met his eyes, black on black, definitely non-human. He studied me as a change came over his face. It wasn't a pleasant one either. He moved quickly and snatched up Lynda-Jean, holding her by her throat several feet off the ground.

“You told me she was a finder.” He shook her.

Lynda-Jean squeaked a denial. “Both,” she choked out.

“No, lying human. You said her. You were quite clear. Why?” He relaxed his grip slightly, lowering her to stand on the grass, so she could answer. She took a big, shaky breath, but seemed as immobile as I was. It was a good thing I was too, as I realized that she'd betrayed us to Gabriel.

“Thought you'd take her.” His fingers tightened around her throat again. “Please, stop, please, you're hurting me.”

“Am I?” He was unconcerned as he lifted her into the air once more. “You dare to try to manipulate me?  To lie to me?”

“Please, stop!  It hurts – Please let me go,” she was choking. I looked on in horror as Gabriel turned to me.

“Should I let this liar go?  This worthless one?” he asked, eyes staring into mine.

In that moment, I wanted to say no. I wanted her to hurt. Hell, I wanted her dead. She'd betrayed us to this creature, and I had no idea why. All I knew was that my husband had been taken because of her. I couldn’t do it though.

“Yes, let her go. Just – stop hurting her.” I kept my voice even, hiding my disgust and contempt.

Gabriel continued to look at me, and I dared myself not to look away. Never taking his eyes off me, he casually reached up with his other hand. With a sickening snap, he twisted Lynda-Jean's head. He dropped her body to the ground. I stared open-mouthed at her lifeless face, her head turned at an impossible angle.

“Pain stopped. I let her go. See?  We can work together.” He seemed pleased with himself.

I felt a wave of dizziness and probably would have dropped if I hadn’t still been kept immobile. Aela still hovered beside me, arrow pointed at Gabriel. I hoped she wouldn’t shoot. Until I got my Thulu back, we needed Gabriel.

I dragged my gaze back to his face. He looked down at the ground, thinking, then back at me. “Very well, I will bring the man back. By now they are several worlds away. It will take a small amount of time.” He smiled, large sharp teeth glinting in the remaining light. It made him even more frightening, if that were possible. “You will find the relics and give them to me.”

“Even if we find the rest, Jones will never let you have them. You must know that.” How could he think Jones would sit idly by while we turned them all over to Gabriel, his worst enemy?

His face became hard, and there was nothing beautiful about it, but his voice was soft, as if he were chiding a child.

“You should not be working with that evil creature. You may make reparation to me by giving the relics to me.” He paused and nodded to himself. He gave a significant look at Lynda-Jean's body, before pointedly letting his gaze wander behind me. I caught the threat to my family. “You are a clever human, right?” He reached out, and I rose higher into the air, still in my kneeling position. I floated to him until our faces were inches apart. His face so much larger than mine. His voice was silky smooth, but I felt it echo around me, almost through me. “You will get the relics. You will get
all
of them and give them to me. You will now agree to this.” His gaze swept behind me again. “Agree – now.”

There was no way I'd be able to keep any agreement. He had to know that, didn't he? I didn't care. I nodded my head, knowing I was lying.

“I agree.”

“Now see how easy that was?” His voice was soft as he again looked behind me and took a long, deep breath. His obvious pleasure was almost obscene. As I watched him, something clicked in my mind, and I knew Gabriel's secret. His eyes turned back to me, and he gave me a lazy smile before he blinked out. I fell heavily to the ground, one knee catching the edge of the sidewalk. My kneecap shattered and exploded in pain.

Pain and fear warred with each other. Tears sprang to my eyes, and I brushed them away, irritated with myself. I didn't have time to be a baby. I looked at my knee and saw blood and bone and felt a wave of dizziness. I didn't bother putting my weight on it. I could tell it was going to be a bad recovery and didn't have time to worry about that. I looked around and saw Nana Bette and Nana Tara on the back porch. They were shell-shocked, but not looking at me.

I twisted around to see where they were looking. At first my brain simply couldn't absorb what I was seeing. The scene came into focus as everything finally, slowly registered. Erik was on the ground nearby, braced against a tree. He was protectively hunched over a crying Carter and both seemed uninjured.

Ally and Brent had been blown into a table. They were slowly and shakily helping each other to their feet. They came toward me and helped me up, each supporting me on a side as I stared at the back fence. Ally gasped when she saw my knee, but one look at my face and she followed my gaze to the block wall fence.

The bright colors of the summer clothing my family wore were splashed with blood. Limbs tangled together, many of them had been mashed together by Gabriel's gigantic gust of wind into a scene straight out of Escher. Sound leached back into the world, with cries and screams of pain. Nana Fae and Mama Deb stood to one side as Drew made his way toward them.

It was at that moment I wailed in loss and denial. I recognized Nana Fae's bright green blouse on a form lying lifeless to one side of the tangled group. I looked in shock at the crumpled body and back at her not quite solid form. Mama Deb and Drew were by her side as they drifted over to me. Frantically, I told the three of them to get back to their bodies.

Before I could say any more, there was a flurry of activity. Thankfully people had already come to help. I saw a neighbor standing helplessly to one side, his hand to his mouth. I was trying to process too much at once and nothing was making sense to me. I clung to Ally and Brent as I finally took a deep, calming breath.

The people helping were elves. I had no idea how or when they got there, but I felt a wave of gratitude and relief. I knew I had to get Nana Fae, Mama Deb and Drew back to their bodies and quickly. The elves would be able to fix them, I was sure. I simply wasn't going to allow them to be dead. My heart was thudding in my chest hard enough to break through.

With Ally and Brent's support, I limped to the back wall, stopping by Nana Fae's body. Ally and Brent, shocked and horrified, stayed with me, lending support while staring at the mass of people a few feet away.

Once again, I turned to my grandmother and told her to get back to her body.

Nana Fae simply shook her head. I looked at Mama Deb, who pointed to where her own body lay broken and bloody. Her head had become impaled on one of the gardening stakes she used for her tomatoes. My heart skipped a beat when I saw the extent of the damage. I had a gigantic hole in my own chest that was getting bigger by the second. I was forced to nod my head in acknowledgment. I looked at Nana Fae again, fear threatening to overwhelm me, but she only shook her head.

“I'll explain later,” she said.

“Nana, no,” I started to argue when I saw Drew's body. One of the rescuers, a male elf, was gently floating Drew's body out of the rest of my broken family. Drew was covered in blood, but I wasn't sure if it was his or someone else's. The elf ran his hands above Drew's body and caught sight of Drew's spirit. He motioned to Drew to get into his body.

I asked the elf what was wrong, and he said Drew's lungs had been punctured by broken ribs, but he could repair the damage.

“Is that his blood or someone else's?” I asked.

The elf continued to work on Drew. “He has some scrapes and bruises, but most of the blood is someone else's. His lungs were the big problem.”

Remembering how Reo had quietly spoken to Matt Mason, I tried to keep my voice even.

“Drew, go back to your body. This elf will repair the damage. Please, sweetie. We need you.”

Drew looked at his mother, who went to him and put her arms around him. “Listen to her, son. The family needs you. I love you. For now, I'm going to stay, and Fi can contact me at any time. You go to your body and live.”

Drew nodded and slowly sat down and lay back into his body. A few moments later, he opened his eyes.

“Is there pain?” asked the elf?

Drew seemed to be taking stock. He slowly sat up. Testing arms and legs, he stood up, moving carefully.

“I seem to be fine,” he said in a choked voice. “Thank you. Can you help the others?”

The elf nodded and moved to Nana Fae's body. He looked up at her sharply after running his hands in the air over her. He ran his hands over her head and looked into my eyes as he shook his own head.

I dropped to the ground to cradle her body, ignoring the pain in my knee. I smoothed her hair back from her face, as she'd done for me a thousand times when I was young. Up close, I saw how dark the circles were under her eyes and how thin she had gotten. I looked up at her, pleading, tears pouring down my face. “Please, Nana.”

“I'm here, my sweet girl. I'm right here. You can see and hear me.”

“It's not the same, Nana.” I hugged her body to me. “It's just not the same.”

“It will have to do, Fiona.”

I shook my head, sobbing as I'd done that long ago rainy night, when my parents had died. Only this time, there was no one holding me to make it better. I wanted Thulu and promised myself I'd kill Gabriel if he didn't return him to me.

The elf patted my shoulder as he moved over to Jude. She had scrapes and bruises on her face, arms and legs. One arm was hanging at an angle that screamed broken.

One by one, the elves gently and carefully extricated my family. A short distance away, Erik sat on the ground by his wife's body. She'd been moved off the stake, but the damage to her brain had to be massive. With Brent at my side, I hobbled over to Erik and repeated what Mama Deb had said to Drew. Erik looked at me blankly before he gave a short nod. I looked for Carter, who was safe in Ally's arms.

Nana Fae and Mama Deb had been joined by Nana Tara. Another wail of denial tore from my throat as I looked at the porch. When was this going to stop?  Neither of the other Nanas were in sight, but they had been there just moments before.

Brent stopped me as I struggled to get to the porch. I frantically pointed to the porch and told him about Nana Tara. Brent simply reached down, picked me up and carried me to the porch. Nana Bette sat on the floor, next to the lifeless Nana Tara.

Nana Tara's ghost had followed me and shook her head as I told her to get back in her body.

“No, dear, there have been too many changes. Besides, I'm missing my Erik. I think he might be waiting for me.”

“No, Nana Tara,” I begged. “The elves can heal you. We already lost Nana Fae and Mama Deb. Think what that will do to Erik!  To lose his mother and wife both. Please, Nana Tara, please. I'm begging you. No more, okay?”

She looked over the backyard at her son, the pain and loss evident in every line of his body. One of the female elves had joined us and said Nana Tara's heart had given out. Nana Tara met my eyes.

“Just this one time, Fiona. If I die again, don't ask me to stay.”

“I won't. Just please, stay now, please.” The sob caught in my throat.

She moved back into her body, and the elf did whatever magic thing she did. Nana Tara's eyes opened.

I began to hop away.

“Is anyone going to heal that child or are you going to force her to hop around all night?” Nana Bette's voice had that no-nonsense tone to it. She looked at me. “Fiona, is my daughter still here?”

I nodded and again repeated that Mama Deb said she'd stay and would be in contact with me.

“I'm going to hold you to that.” Her face just crumpled, and it was Nana Tara's turn to comfort her friend.

The elf girl came to me and stooped down to see my knee. She ran her hand in the air over it. I felt a hot, pulsing wave. I swear I heard some crunching as the pieces of my kneecap moved back into place and began to knit together. It didn't hurt, but it felt really weird. The skin reformed, and soon there wasn't even a scar to show for the injury, just the drying blood.

Romeo had come out to the deck with the other three children, and they stood there with Juliet. The kids were scared, but safe, and their parents grabbed them up with hugs and kisses. Ally brought Carter to the deck, handing him to Angie, who took charge of all four kids. She led them back inside, away from the horror of the backyard.

The cries had almost disappeared as elves healed my broken family. Which made the scream that cut through the dusk much more terrifying. I made my way to one of the trees near the back fence. Jude and Becca stood with tears streaming down their faces, arms wrapped around each other. Shock and pain was on every face I saw. Mara was sobbing hard in Drew's arms. Ally had collapsed to the grass, with Brent at her side.

All eyes were focused on the branches of the oak tree, where a body was tangled. At first I couldn't identify who it was.  Bloody, with arms and legs bent in directions they weren't supposed to go, it was hard to make out features in the gathering twilight. Without making direct contact, an elf carefully worked to disentangle it and finally brought the broken body to rest on the grass. It was Evan. I caught sight of his ghost joining Nana Fae and Mama Deb. He looked at his body and back at me.

“I'm not ready to be dead, Fi.”

I looked at the elf, the one who had helped Drew. He shook his head.

“I'm sorry, but his neck was broken, his spinal cord severed. No oxygen has been getting to his brain. Not even magic can work when the brain has been damaged this much.”

I looked back at Evan's ghost and shook my head. He gave a long sigh. Mama Deb took his hand, and Nana Fae whispered something to him. He listened carefully and seemed to come to terms with his death. It always surprised me how quickly the dead often accepted their deaths. Much faster than those they left behind came to grips with losing them.

I felt eyes on me and looked around as my family began to focus on me, one by one. Of course, they would expect me to handle the communications. After all, it was what I did.

I saw Lynda-Jean was still there, as well. She stood off to the side, and I got the sense that the other dead had turned their backs on her. When she saw that I was looking at her, she put her head down for a few seconds. She seemed to find some inner strength and looked back up, meeting my eyes with defiance. I gave one short nod. I'd deal with her, but in my own good time.

What I wanted to do was curl up in a corner and cry. I didn't have that option, though; there was simply too much to do.  I had to help my family and hope my husband was returned to me soon. I didn't want to even think about him not returning. I believed Gabriel would send him back, simply because he wanted the relics.

And that meant we had to find them first, banish the Light Ones and seal the portal before Gabriel slaughtered the rest of our family. I believed his silent threat and had no doubt he would follow through.

We also had to deal with the police, who had just arrived. I assumed the neighbors had called them. I felt overwhelmed, and the tears I thought had been cried out came back in force.

That was when Reo came charging into the backyard, closely followed by Jones and Stuart. Of course, Reo would have sensed the crisis. Jones staggered a step or two, and I guessed that the pain in the yard had to be overwhelming. He recovered quickly, though, hiding whatever thoughts he had. Reo took stock of the scene and made his way to me and pulled me into his arms. I knew I had the support I'd need to deal with everything and sobbed with relief.