Deadly Expectations (83 page)

“I’ll be taking it back after I cut that bastard out of you with it,” he laughed again.

Movement behind him caught my eye.
 
At first I thought it was just the hot air distorting burning wreckage but as I kept my eyes on Damian I realized it was a man, taking a few silent steps closer to us.
 
Maybe a survivor or another of his men.
 
That figured.
 
The coward would bring backup.

Damian looked down at his knife, running his fingertips along the edge of his blade, satisfying himself that it was sharp and deadly.
 
I risked a quick glance at the man only a dozen feet behind him.
 
My heart sunk; it was Paul.
 
I couldn’t read him like I couldn’t read Damian.
 
He put his finger to his lips and took another step and stopped, watching me.

No, I thought.
 
No … you were supposed to stay away.
 
You were supposed to let me do this.

Then Pilot’s words came to me.
 
Perhaps she could send someone away
, he had said.

If you won’t stay away Paul I’ll send you away.
 
I thought of our daughter waking up alone by the pond.
 
I started to set my focus as pressure built in my hand.
 
She would wake up with her father.
 
Then I channelled the force of the next contraction into my hand.
 
The blue glow that filled it fought the orange light in the air.

I took a couple of steps to the right circling Damian, Andre’s fingers twitching on the handle of the knife, my fingers twitching with the blue arcs that circled around into the back of my hand.
 
Damian glanced indifferently at my light show.
 
Paul circled him in the same direction.
 
Damn, I couldn’t get a clean shot to him.
 
The next contraction brought me to my knees.
 
Damian laughed as I kept my eyes on him, still so pleased with himself like he’d had anything to do with me being in labour now.
 
Paul took another step toward him, his hands out to me.

As I waited to stand up I decided I would move quickly to the side and discharge the energy in my hand past Damian into Paul, sending him away, but as I started to get back on my feet the baby kicked hard, triggering another massive contraction to roll right in on top of the one that was still fading.

NO!

I dropped back to my knees, then to all fours, keeping my head up as I panted.
 
Damian took a few steps toward me, Paul matching behind.
 
Damian’s laughter sounding flat in the hot air.
 
He was enjoying himself, taking his time.

NO!

Her connection to Paul fought me.

Your mistake,
it said
.

God, she was right.
 
She told me they never found him and it was my fault.
 
He had interfered but the screw up was completely mine.
 
Maybe I needed my energy to jump fighting Damian alone … and with it almost gone by sending Paul away Damian had been able to fatally wound me before I killed him and got home.

Damian was still closing the gap to me as Paul closed the gap to him.
 
I picked the knife back up and got up on my feet then I started walking backward as the two of them approached me.
 
I wouldn’t have long before the pain froze me again and hoped Andre could push me past it.

“Damian … my love,” I cooed to him.
 
“How long has it been since you had me?”

A low growl started in the back of his throat.
 
I knew Paul could hear me but I didn’t break my eye contact with Damian.
 
Paul would know what I was doing.
 
Distracting him.
 
Keeping him focused on me.

“More than two hundred years,” I said as softly as I could without my voice being lost in the muted roar of the fire around us.
 
“I can see the frustration in your face.
 
The tension you think exists between us … the attraction … too bad it’s one sided.
 
But then you’ve always been a lousy lover … no wonder you have to take it.”

Andre held the knife loosely, patiently, he would only need a moment and he could wait a little longer.
 
He’d waited seventy years already.

“You always were a shitty leader Rex … you were then, you are now,” Andre goaded him.

“Coward,” we said together.

Rage filled Damian’s face.
 
His lips curling back to show his teeth.
 
He would strike at me as soon as he got close enough expecting to sink it in deep right away.
 
He was like a mugger on the street.
 
Expecting fear and submission like he had seen from Catherine.
 
Not resistance and attack.
 
I held my arms out to my sides, appearing inexperienced and defenceless.
 
He put his arms out like mine.
 
Overconfident ass.
 
He had no idea what was coming.

“Coward … coward,” I was singing to him but another contraction was starting so I stopped and took a step toward him as Paul finished closing the gap.

Another step and Paul had him from behind.
 
Immobilized.
 
Damian’s face filled with surprise.
 
He roared at Paul as he struggled.
 
I whispered as I tried to blow through the contraction and forced myself to take my last two steps to him as the pain in my stomach grew and tried to freeze my legs.
 
His head flew back into Paul’s and they staggered back together a step.
 
Blood burst from his cheek bone and I jumped from the sound from the impact.

Paul’s grip slipped and Damian got an arm loose allowing him to turn on him.
 
Paul quickly released his other arm as Damian pulled it free, before the knife in his hand could slash his arm on its way by.

They circled each other.
 
Damian armed, Paul not.
 
Damian getting closer and Paul backing up to stay out of his reach blinking to clear his watering eyes.

“I’ve won Richards,” Damian taunted.
 
“Surrender.
 
I’ll make it quick.”

Paul didn’t reply.
 
He watched Damian closely as he kept glancing at me.
 
Damn it Paul, I thought, pay attention.
 
Look after yourself.

“She’s soft … so easy to hurt.
 
But she’ll take so much without complaint,” he goaded.
 
“I remember what it felt like, to have her want me.
 
She’s so trusting, loyal … the look on her face as I put her in her place.
 
Holding her down, making her submit,
watching
my fingers sink in to her throat.”

“It was so satisfying when she finally started begging … bleeding … when I cut your stink from her.
 
Made her watch.”

Paul brought his hands up and took a half step forward.
 
He wanted Damian, badly, but he held back.

“Yet again, your happy little family in a little dead heap at my feet.”

Damian laughed as he made his move and when Paul committed to blocking he dodged the other way and swung the knife at his undefended side.
 
Damian was fast with the overconfidence that being armed gave him.
 
Paul was deliberate with caution.
 
He only had his hands.

Without thinking I disappeared, reappearing almost on top of Damian as the contraction released me.
 
Everything slowed down and I was distracted by the horrible feeling that what my daughter said was coming true anyway.
 
Unavoidable.
 
I had intended to appear with my knife already in his back but I was up against him, knocking the swing of his knife hand off course and away from Paul, slashing Damian’s side.

Damian shouted with pain and turned on me, the greater threat slashing at my bound arm tearing the cloth open and digging in to my skin below.
 
I lashed back catching the inside of his arm before I backed up a couple of steps hoping to lead him away but Damian backed away from both of us.

“You know how I know you’re crazy, you stupid bitch?” he spat at me as he kept going.

Paul wouldn’t look at me as he tried to get between Damian and I … I kept moving to the left so he couldn’t, my hand clutching my freshly cut left arm.
 
I could feel the tingle of the blue light entering my body through the wound.

Damian’s backward pace quickened as he moved his knife to his left hand, then he held up his right and filled it with blue light like mine.
 
Little tendrils of blue lightning reached toward us as he sneered.
 
I went right, passing behind Paul who was still going left, trying to stay between us.

Then Damian’s hand appeared on fire, with blue lightning that seemed to drip from it to the ground.
 
It
hissed,
a soft roar like a blow torch and as the breeze shifted toward me I could finally pick up Damian’s stink under my nose.
 
I put my hand over my face to try and keep it out.
 
Damian swung his hand in a slow circle, making the light follow in a bright rope trick.
 
Paul looked over his left shoulder to make sure he knew where I was but I’d moved and as he took a step back and looked over his right Damian brought his hand up.
 
He said something to Paul, too softly for me to make out as he snapped his light forward.
 
I was looking at Paul’s eyes as the blue fingers wrapped his body for a second then there was a soft pop as the air rushed in to the space he’d been in.

Paul was gone.

“God damn you!” I yelled as Damian backed away laughing.
 
He gave me the finger as he disappeared into the wreckage.
 
I sank to the ground, clutching my chest, watching the place where I’d last seen Paul.
 
Trying to feel him.
 
I could but it was so faint.
 
Damian had done what I hadn’t.
 
Sent Paul away and there was nothing I could do to get him back now.
 
My energy was intact … or maybe this was how things were supposed to turn out.
 
Damian making Paul disappear and me pissing my energy away fighting him.
 
Then my hands to my belly as the pain started again.

The least I could do now was make it home in better shape.
 
I could survive.
 
But not bound to the ground like this.
 
As I rode the contraction I let my blue light explore it.
 
I wanted to soften the pain, slow the labour.
 
Not for long, maybe twenty minutes.
 
Maybe half an hour.
 
Just long enough to finish that son of a bitch.
 
As the pain faded I let my light into me.
 
Immediately my stomach softened and the pain disappeared.
 
I could feel the baby still, she was okay and I carefully stood.

Damian’s handgun was still on the ground nearby so I took it.
 
It was loaded so I made sure the safety was on and put it in my pack with mine.
 
I wasn’t going to leave it for him to retrieve.
 
I was certain that he’d want to finish me with something slow and personal anyway.
 
Like I wanted to finish him.

I waited another minute as I checked my cut arm.
 
The new wound was deeper than the one the remains of the bandage covered but it barely oozed.
 
I took a deep breath.
 
No pain, no tightness in my belly.
 
Whatever I’d done was working.
 
Paul was still connected to me, barely, but enough to know wherever he was he was alive.
 
I tried to sense Damian but his smell disappeared with Paul.
 
I felt completely alone here again.
 
The way it was supposed to be but that meant I had to hunt him blind.