Awakening (31 page)

He stuffed some shredded paper between
the five logs stacked in the fire place. “Nothing concrete. I
figure we go and case the place and see if an opportunity
arises.”

“
So we are totally winging
it?” I couldn’t help it, my voice sounded annoyed.

“
I don’t see what choice we
have. We don’t honestly know what’s going on up there. We don’t
know how many men we’ll be facing. Do you have a better
suggestion?”

Luke’s plan sounded like insanity to
me, but I honestly didn’t have a better idea.

Luke lit the fire and then came and
sat down next to me. “I want you to stay with me after this is all
over.”

I couldn’t believe what I was hearing.
I was worried about surviving the night, and he was talking about a
future we might never see. “You’ve got to be kidding.”

He looked at me. “I’m not.”

I turned my face away. “I can’t…I
can’t stay with you.” I forced the words out. “What would I do? I’m
not a healer anymore.”

His fingers reached up and touched my
cheek. “You can be part of our guild.”

At his answer a harsh laugh came out,
I looked over at him, could he be serious? “My clan will never
accept me back. Not as I am now. And you think your family, your
guild will welcome me with open arms after they find out what I can
do?”

He reached out and grabbed my hand.
“Everything you did and went through was to avenge your
family.”

I pulled my hand away and got to my
feet. “Revenge isn’t a good enough motive. The dark powers…” I
turned away suddenly not able to meet his eyes. “Most of the
population considers death dealers toxic.”

He got to his feet and came and stood
in front of me. “And now you’re one of us.”

“
I’m not.” I shook my head
slowly back and forth. “I’m not one of you. You’ve seen what I can
do. You don’t know what the magic is that I’m doing or how I’m
doing it. You don’t know what I’ve turned into. I don’t know what I
am anymore.”

He reached out and grabbed my arm.
“You’re someone I care about. Someone who I want by my
side.”

I pulled my arm away. “You say that
now, but in a few months, in a year, how will you feel
then?”

His voice was angry now. “The
same.”

I spun around and confronted him. “You
don’t know that. You can’t say that for sure.”

The anger faded, and his expression
turned serious. “I know how I feel about you. I know I’ve fallen in
love with you.”

I took a step back as if he’d struck
me. “Don’t say that!”

“
I know you have feelings
for me.”

I took another step back. “I don’t
know what I feel.”

His anger was back, blazing from his
eyes. “When this is all over, you can’t just run away from this,
from us.”

I couldn’t stop myself from saying the
words. “There’s no us.”

“
There can be if you have
the courage to face your feelings.”

I felt cold, and I wrapped my arms
around my body. “You don’t know what you’re talking
about.”

His voice turned low and persuasive.
“I know you lost your family. I know you’re still grieving for
them, but you can’t throw what is between us away because you’re
scared.”

“
I’m not scared. I’m
realistic. I don’t belong in your world.”

He reached out his arms toward me.
“You do, you can make a place for yourself with my
people.”

I didn’t move. “I can’t go around
helping the sick die. I can’t spend my days roping in spirits so
their living relatives can have a conversation with them. I can’t
live this life of yours.”

Luke’s arms dropped by his side. “So
what then? What’ll you do?”

“
I don’t know,” I
whispered.

“
Where will you
go?”

I shook my head. “I’m not
sure.”

His exasperation showed on his face.
“Look, this is crazy. I’m not going to let you walk out the door
when all of this is over. I’m in love with you whether you want to
hear it or not. And I know you love me.”

“
Stop saying
that!”

“
I won’t let you
go!”

I laughed suddenly, but even to my own
ears it sounded hollow and forced. “You plan to force me to stay
with you?”

His voice was low. “You know that’s
not what I meant.”

Neither one of us said anything for a
few moments, we just stood there staring at each other. I finally
broke the silence. “You don’t want me. You don’t have feelings for
me. You can’t…”

“
Don’t tell me how I feel.”
He was angry again.

“
We barely know each
other.” I could feel the tears forming, but I blinked them
back.

“
I know all I need to.
You’re the one I want to spend the rest of my life
with.”

“
You can’t mean that, we
barely know each other.” A single tear slid down my face. “I can’t.
I can’t…do this.”

A voice called from the door. “Is this
a bad time?” It was Freddy he was standing in the doorway a large
black duffel bag over one shoulder.

I wiped the tear away and greeted
Freddy, “Hi, there are some muffins in the kitchen if you want
one.’

He looked from me to Luke. “Thanks,
but I’ve all ready eaten.” He set the bag down on the floor. “I’ve
come prepared.”

I waited for Luke to say something,
but he just stood there silent, watching me.

I forced a smile onto my face. “What’s
in the bag?”

Freddy crouched down and opened it. He
started to pull out items. “Duct tape, some rope, a small
axe…basically anything I could think of that might
help.”

That was the problem--none of us knew
what type of situation we were walking into. It was foolish and
reckless for us to head up there and try to save Darla without a
plan, but that’s exactly what we were going to be doing in just a
few hours.

Chapter
Fifteen

We were in the car heading up to the
mansion. Instead of focusing on what we were about to do, I kept
going over the conversation I’d had with Luke. Luke confused
me--when I was around him, the way he made me feel, it was
something I’d never felt for anyone before. My head kept telling me
that this thing between us was all happening too fast, that I
couldn’t trust the emotions swirling inside me. But did I mean all
those things I had said to him? I wasn’t sure.

I knew I couldn’t see myself fitting
into the life of a death dealer. I feared the reaction I’d get from
his guild when they found out the things I could do. Luke seemed to
think they would welcome me into their midst with open arms, but I
doubted it. I remembered the look on Luke’s face when I had created
the zombies. The terror that filled him when he realized the mob at
the hospital would connect us to the undead rising. People had
feared Luke and his guild before, but now they would be hunted. If
it was true, and the death dealers became targets, it would all be
because of me. If the general public started hurting or killing
their kind, how could the guild ever forgive me?

I looked over at Luke. He was behind
the steering wheel, his full attention focused on the road. I sat
in the front seat next to him. Luke hadn’t said anything to me
since we got in the car. I regretted the fight. We didn’t know what
we were heading off to face, and we didn’t know if it was something
we would be coming back from. What if those words said in anger
were the last words we truly spoke to each other? I reached over
and touched his arm. Luke glanced over at me, a questioning look on
his face. I gave him a smile. He smiled back.

Freddy began telling yet another story
from the back seat. Luke had been quiet, and I had been lost in
thought for most the drive, but Freddy had been a nonstop
chatterbox. Apparently Freddy was the type to talk when he was
nervous, so for a solid twenty minutes I heard stories of Darla,
Luke and Freddy growing up together. I now knew why Luke had a
small scar on his elbow. How Luke had, at age seven, fallen out of
a tree, landed on a sprinkler and broken his arm. It probably
hadn’t helped that Freddy had dared Luke to climb the tree in the
first place or that after Luke scrambled up, Freddy started
throwing rocks at him, just to help motivate Luke to get down. At
another time and place I would have found the stories charming and
funny, but now knowing where we were going, and what we were about
to try and do, they were distracting and not in a good
way.

Freddy started another tale, this one
about the time he and Luke had prank called Darla when she was
babysitting, freaking Darla out by imitating weird scary voices
over the phone.

Luke interrupted him. “Freddy, enough
with the stories.”

The car pulled over onto a side dirt
road and stopped.

I looked out the window. The
headlights shone on dense trees and foliage, but outside of the
glare of the headlights it was pitch black.

“
Where are we?” I
asked.

“
About a half mile from the
mansion. This is an old logging road. I figure we can make our way
in on foot to the edge of the property and hopefully not be seen by
anyone.” Luke gestured to the left. “If we’d kept to the main road
another few minutes, we would’ve hit the main gate and then through
the gate it’s about a mile up a winding driveway to the front
entrance.”

“
We hike through the woods
and scope out the place?” I still was not sold on Luke’s
plan.

“
That’s the idea, we get as
close as we can and we do some reconnaissance.” Luke looked over at
me. “We see how well they’re guarding the place. Maybe get a
glimpse of how many men we’ll be facing. If we get lucky we stumble
across Darla, and we get her out.”

And if we get unlucky we
end up dead.
I didn’t say what I was
thinking out loud, but Luke seemed to be able to read my
mood.

Luke said in a defensive voice. “If
anyone has a better idea, speak up.”

When neither Freddy nor I said
anything, Luke turned off the headlights and the ignition. He
opened the car door and got out. “Freddy, hand me one of those
flashlights you brought.”

Freddy reached into his bag and pulled
out a small light.

Luke turned it on, aiming the light
toward the ground. “Darla, Freddy and I hiked up here quite a few
times when we were kids. There’s a favorite picnic spot with a view
of the lake not far from the mansion property. We should be able to
make our way through the woods without too much
trouble.”

And when we got there? I hadn’t been
able to bind Thomas to me. I had no banshee magic to wield against
the bad guys. Freddy brought his bag with the axe and duct tape.
How either was helpful was beyond me, but at least we had another
body helping out. Three against a dozen? Two dozen? I shook my head
and tried to push away all my doubts. We were here now it made
sense to check the place out.

We hiked through the dark woods. I
walked behind Luke and when he suddenly stopped I stumbled against
his back.

He turned the flashlight off. “You see
the lights from the house up ahead? We’re quite close.”

He moved forward and I followed. Now
walking in complete darkness I stumbled on a rock.

Luke reached out and grabbed me before
I fell. “Careful, the ground ahead is uneven.”

“
How can you see where
you’re going?” I whispered.

“
I’ve always had good night
vision. Put your hand on my shoulder.”

I did what he said, and we made our
way slowly through the trees and underbrush toward the
house.

The mansion was bigger than I
imagined. We were at the rear of it. Tiki torches lined a back
courtyard. There was some kind of party going on. People gathered
in small groups, scattered around the grounds. But were they having
a party? It didn’t look like a celebration. There was no food or
drink. I moved closer and realized the people were all wearing
masks. A ritual? A gathering of the clan? This was not what clans
did when they got together. The clan gatherings were under the sun,
and food and drink were abundant. They often put on games and
events showing off feats of strength and skills in magic. People
wagered over the games as everyone laughed and talked.

There was no loud laughter or speaking
going on. People were talking, I could tell by the way they huddled
together, their heads almost touching. Whispering. Masks and
silence. What were they doing?

So far we hadn’t stumbled across any
guards or security. The bad guy’s compound had been easy enough to
breach. They oddly didn’t seem worried about keeping people out.
From shrubs to trees--Luke, Freddy and I slowly made our way slowly
closer. When we were on the very edge of the grounds, about ten
feet away from the closest group of people, a trumpet sounded. The
crowd who had been quiet until now broke out into loud shouts and
cheers.

What the heck was this about? Everyone
turned in unison and started to make their way back toward the
house. There was an archway above a large doorway leading inside
the mansion. The group closest started to head off following the
herd, but someone lingered. The person stopped, pushing back the
cloak and pulling down the golden mask hiding the top half of her
face. She was leaning over trying to adjust the strap on her fancy
footwear.