Keepers: A Timeless Novella (9 page)

I turned; the rental house
she and Andrew had shared not long ago was a shadow in the night.
“What are we doing here?” I asked. I was nervous all of a sudden,
remembering the events that happened here before we
fled.

“
Well, seeing as how
everything’s gone to shit, I figured a vacation rental would do you
some good,” she explained.

I wanted to laugh, but I
was too exhausted to exert the effort. “You hit the nail on the
head with that one.”

Andrew shared a grin with
Gabby, actually able to decipher our strange language this time. I
caught Jenna’s weary and tired expression transform with a wide
smile.

“
What about the Empyrean
Guard?” I asked, my gaze suspiciously searching every shadow.
“Won’t they come looking here for you?”

“
That ship’s long since
sailed,” Gabby said. “They’ve known my location for a few days, yet
they’ve kept away. This will be the last place they’ll look.
Besides, we’re on a completely different island.”

My eyebrows rose. “But—” I
squinted, trying to make out the rental house’s
features.

Andrew must have understood
my hesitation because he stepped forward and tacked on, “It’s like
the same place we stayed, but it’s not. It’s owned by the same
company—that’s why it looks similar.”

“
Wow.” That was about as
much as I could spit out, my tongue tied in gratefulness over their
kindness. “Anywhere would have been perfect, as long as it’s far
away from—” I almost said “far away from my home,” but I didn’t
have one anymore. It was now my pile of ash, or the barbecue pit
that was once my home, or Ashty McAshterson. I mean, what did I
call it now? My lot?

I received looks of pity,
and the silence turned awkward. No one wanted to say it, so I did.
“As long as I’m far away from my pile of ash.”

No one laughed.

<>

After a dreadful, thirty
minute conversation with my mother, followed by the five minute one
with my father that was full of condolences about my home and
apologies for my mother’s behavior, I was spent. All I could think
about was sleep—I needed a break from my reality—but I had a
feeling sleep wouldn’t come so easily. I made myself focus on Jenna
and Jules. Guilt ate away at my insides; it was my fault they were
ever in danger. When that brick came through the window, my
reaction shouldn’t have been “tomorrow.” I shouldn’t have waited
even a minute. In fact, I should have demanded we leave that
second, but I didn’t because I was a moron.

I sighed as I sat next to
Jules. She was fast asleep on the couch, and the angelic look on
her face put me at ease; I was glad her sleep wasn’t being wracked
with nightmares about fires or angry mobs of people throwing
bricks. Ah, to be so oblivious and unaware. Jenna was in the
bedroom, and it wouldn’t have surprised me if she were already
asleep herself. Firen towered over me, her presence comforting. If
Firen hadn’t rescued her from the fire, I would have been stuck in
that back room with Jules. Hell, if it weren’t for Gabby and her
abilities to save and heal me, I’d be in the hospital right now
with horrific burns. The thought of those same wounds being
inflicted on Jules nearly crippled me.

I had planned to ask Jenna
about adopting Jules a while back, but things had gotten so crazy
and hectic that the timing never seemed right. After last night,
there was no right time anymore. It was now—now was the time. I
wanted to be her father. Though I knew I’d never be able to fill
the void of her real dad, I hoped Jenna and Jules would let me try.
It would be impossible to walk in the shoes of a hero, which was
exactly what Dave was. He’d died fighting in Iraq before Jules was
even born. How did one live up to that?

I rose, leaned over and
kissed Jules on the forehead, and waved goodnight to Firen as I
made my way to the bedroom. Jenna was cuddled under the covers,
barely awake. The sun was finally rising, and it was weird to think
it was time to sleep. Though I’d normally not find this gloomy
weather pleasant, I appreciated the cloudy sky, sprinkling rain
over the lush, green landscape visible outside our
window.

“
Hey, I wanted to talk to
you about something,” I said softly.

Jenna scooted into a
sitting position, seeming uncertain. “What is it?” Her tone was
worried.

I perched on the side of
the bed, turning to face her. “Don’t worry, it’s nothing bad. I
just . . . I’ve been meaning to talk to you about something for a
while, but I didn’t know how to approach the subject. So . . . I’m
just going to say it.”

Her eyebrows
furrowed.

I pulled her hands into
mine and looked her right in the eye. I wanted her to know that
what I was about to say wasn’t because I felt like I had to do it,
but because I wanted to be Jules’s dad. “Jenna, I want to adopt
Jules.”

Silence.

Her eyes went wide, the
only reaction. She stared at me in shock.

“
Now would be a good time
to say something,” I said nervously, followed by a strange little
chuckle I couldn’t believe just exited my throat.

Jenna still didn’t say
anything, but her mouth moved as if she wanted to. I didn’t know
what to do. Was she upset? My stomach twisted at the thought. Was
she afraid I was trying to replace a dad Jules had never known? I
felt sick, and now I didn’t know how to back pedal from this
conversation. I didn’t want to take it back, but I certainly didn’t
want Jenna to think I was trying to replace Dave.

“
Jenna? Did I say the wrong
thing?” My voice didn’t sound like mine. It was shaky and afraid. I
couldn’t remember ever feeling so anxious around someone before, so
unsure of where I stood.

“
Y-yes,” Jenna spluttered.
“Yes. Yes! I want you to be her father.” The words came out all
flustered and breathy.

I eyed her carefully,
trying to determine if her agreeing was because she truly wanted me
to fill that void in Jules’s life, or if she felt obligated to say
yes.

“
Are you sure?” I barely
whispered. I was giving her an out. If she didn’t want me to adopt
Jules, now was her chance to say so. If she said no, it would break
my heart in ways I didn’t know it could be broken, but I had to
know for sure that this was what she wanted too.

“
Jenna?” I prodded when she
didn’t respond.

Her lip quivered, and her
eyes watered. Suddenly, she burst into sobs. My mouth flew open; I
didn’t know what to do. Women and tears were something I’d never
dealt with well, so seeing Jenna that way nearly broke me in half.
Hell, it almost made
me
cry.

“
What’s wrong?” I demanded.
“Is this about Dave?” I mentally went over the conversation again,
making sure I hadn’t said something to offend her.

She shook her head. “No,
that’s not it. I just never thought you’d ask.” She barely got the
words out between her tears. “Yes, I want you to adopt Jules,” she
cried. “I’ve never wanted anything more in my life.”

“
So these are happy tears?”
The words tumbled out on a laugh, relief flooding into
me.

“
Yes, you idiot!” she
exclaimed. “Of course they’re happy tears.”

That was when I became the
speechless one, but Jenna didn’t care. She practically tackled me,
hugging me with all her strength. I held her close, hardly able to
believe how perfect everything was. I’d thought my life had burned
to ashes along with my house, but as I soaked up the moment,
feeling more joy and love than I could ever remember, I finally
understood the statement: home is where the heart is. She was home,
not the brick and mortar house I used to have back in
D.C.

I couldn’t believe I had
this woman and her—my—beautiful daughter. They were going to be in
my life forever. The mere thought sent me into euphoric
laughter.

CHAPTER 10: NOT PLAYING
WITH A FULL DECK

My sleep was rudely
interrupted when I fell to the floor with a thud, taking part of
the blankets with me. Standing over me was Lucia, the last person I
expected to see in my bedroom. That was when I realized she had
shoved me off the bed.

“
What’d you do that for?” I
mumbled, still half asleep. “What do you want?” That came out angry
and grumpy. Shaking off the last remnants of sleep, I’d finally
come to grasp the fact that Lucia being in my room wasn’t a good
omen. “What’s wrong?” I demanded, fully awake now.

Lucia cocked her head to
the side and glared down at me, sprawled on the floor. “It’s about
time you woke up. Director Morris has been trying to call you for
fifteen minutes.”

“
Okay,” I said caustically.
“Then why are you in my room? Ever heard of knocking?”

Lucia gave me a look that
clearly showed how big of a moron she thought I was. “They’ve found
Sara.”

Jenna started to wake, and
I knew the last thing she wanted to hear about was Sara. Hell, that
was the last thing
I
wanted to hear about.

“
Um, thanks for telling
me?” It came out as a question. I still wasn’t a hundred percent
sure why Lucia needed to dump me on the floor to tell me this news
while I was busy getting some much-needed sleep. Of course I was
thrilled to hear they’d captured Sara, but couldn’t it have waited
until later? Hadn’t I been through enough?

“
The thing is, Joseph,
Sara’s refused to come . . . quietly,” Lucia said slowly, as if
explaining it to a child. She paused. Waited.

I made a gesture for her to
continue. “And? Tell the agents to man up, slap the handcuffs on
her, and drag her to prison. You’re an angel, why don’t you help
out?”

Lucia shook her head in
frustration. “It’s true that I can do some pretty amazing things,
but you need to understand that I don’t want to hurt anyone by
using my abilities.”

Hurt anyone? Was she
seriously afraid of hurting Sara? The thought of shooting Sara was
rather appealing to me, if I was being honest. That was how furious
I was with her. “She attacked Gabriella and burned my house down! I
don’t understand your use of caution at this juncture.”

At my words, Lucia finally
had to spell it out for me. “The FBI found her at a friend’s house,
but she saw the flashing lights and ran out the back door before
they could get to her. Just around the block was a mall, and Sara
ran inside. When the FBI finally caught up with her, she’d grabbed
a girl and taken her as a hostage.”

“
She WHAT?” The question
flew out of my mouth in an angry roar, propelling me to my feet.
“She took a hostage?” I knew the bitch was crazy, but she’d left
Crazyville a long time ago and hopped on the bus to Schizophrenic
Town. A hostage? Oh yeah, she was definitely psychotic. Someone get
that girl a shot of Valium and a padded cell—STAT! I started
frantically searching for my clothes, but of course I had none
besides the burned remains of what I wore the day
before.

Lucia smiled, though she
wasn’t amused. “I brought clothes,” she said and pointed toward the
bathroom where there were two baskets of folded clothes. “And some
toiletries.”

With no time to waste, I
stripped in front of Lucia and Jenna and changed into clean
clothes. As I was doing that, Lucia made a portal. Jenna stared
between the two of us, shocked, but she snapped out of it. She held
out my phone. I snatched it up, kissed her, and turned toward the
portal.

“
Be safe,” Jenna
called.

“
I will,” I
promised.

In seconds, Lucia and I
were in D.C., and I made sure to mentally tally the frequent flyer
miles for yet another trip through the dimensions. We were outside
a mall, though far enough away that no one saw us walk out of the
portal. We made our way between parked cars as Lucia filled me in
on the situation. “She’s demanding to talk to you and refuses to
negotiate with anybody else.”

“
Great,” I grumbled. Hadn’t
this woman stolen enough of my life? Couldn’t she at least be
arrested without causing trouble? This was just
fantastic.

We were greeted with dozens
of flashing police lights, two ambulances, and a fire truck. There
was a mob outside the mall, pressing themselves against the police
barricades. Media vans had already pulled in and were filming
outside. I made sure to stay far away from them, keeping my head
down and my attention elsewhere. When we got to the barrier, an
officer stopped us. I was about to pull out my identification, but
I’d lost that, along with my gun, in the fire. I felt stripped and
naked without them, and I stupidly stuttered out nonsense when I
realized this.

“
Stay behind the
barricade,” the officer demanded, glaring at me.

“
I’m Special Agent Joseph
Carter of the FBI, now let me pass,” I shouted, furious I was being
held back from going inside because Sara had burned my house
down.

The officer didn’t give me
a second glance as he chuckled, placing a hand on his round belly.
“That’s funny,” he said. “You’re the fourth person to try that on
me tonight.”

I turned to Lucia with
raised eyebrows. It was her turn to work her magic. She gestured
for me to step aside, so I did. She flung magic at the blockade,
and it exploded into tiny splinters of wood. The officer jumped at
the sound, whirling around with his gun out. I covered my face as
the debris rained down on the shocked crowd. The officer had aimed
his gun at
me
, I
realized when I lowered my arms.