Lost Causes (4 page)

Luke dipped a glass measuring cup into the bucket of water he’d drawn from the well, then held his fingers to the cup. A few seconds later, he poured boiling water over a bunch of eggs and into a large French press filled with ground coffee.

No one seemed inclined to speak.

“Is this some sort of Walden Pond, go back to nature thing?” I asked to break the silence.

Luke pulled out a loaf of crusty bread and cut several thick pieces. It was one of those artisanal loaves, the sort that went stale in a day. He might live here, but he still visited civilization on a regular basis to collect supplies.

All eyes were on the serrated blade he’d used to slice the bread. He replied while gesturing with the knife, big sweeping motions that didn’t come near any of our bodies. I didn’t feel threatened. I thought he was messing with us.

“Well, I can’t say it’s a bad idea to get away from the concrete and air conditioning, but if I recall, Walden Pond was all about deliberate solitude. Being here isn’t a choice I made.” He ended with a pointed look at me, both eyebrows raised, but he also set the knife down. “So, care to tell me why a dual, a strong fire, a…” He looked at Vivian, who sat cross-legged in the corner. “…An earth?”

She confirmed his guess. Vivian was too weak to have the traditional physical characteristics that strongly marked both me and Sera—or Luke, for that matter. Powerful earths’ hair and eyes were nearly the same shade, the deep brown of the richest soil, and Vivian’s eyes were hazel. However, she was also too damn calm and grounded to be anything else.

“Okay then. Why are several elementals, a couple of humans, and some people who turn into animals all looking for me if they don’t want to capture or kill me?”

It looked like the small talk was over. “I’m trying to understand what I am. The dual part, I mean. I don’t know any others.”

Luke’s expression softened a bit. “You won’t find any others, darlin’. So far as I’ve been able to tell, they’re all dead. The old ones made sure of that.”

Mac’s eyes darkened. I feared, if Luke didn’t start calling me by my actual name, or perhaps “Ms. Brook, the woman I’m not even a little interested in,” he’d find himself with claw marks in unexpected places.

“Because of the crazy.”

Luke took a bite of buttered bread and swallowed before answering. “Because of the crazy. Most don’t learn to control it. I only knew one other, about a hundred years ago. He hid it as best as he could, but our kind of nuts doesn’t sit quietly in a corner. Eventually, it needs to be heard, and the kind of destruction that happens then… let’s just say it draws attention.”

Excitement rose. I was only in my sixties, though few would peg me as being older than my early twenties. Still, for a full, I was practically a baby. If Luke was already more than a century, there might be hope.

“How old was the other one?” Carmichael asked.

“Forty.”

Damn.

Still, he’d said most don’t know how to control it, and most wasn’t the same as all.

It was a start. I turned to Mac, who’d moved closer to me. He no longer had murder in his eyes. Instead, they held the same hope I was allowing myself to feel.

“But it can be controlled?” The words came out higher than expected. Sera learned forward, elbows on her knees. Sparks flew from her fingers. She tucked her hands under her thighs to hide the agitation.

Luke hadn’t expected the intensity of our response. “You don’t know? I guess you wouldn’t, if you never met any others.” He smiled at me, and again I was aware of our connection. It wasn’t physical, not even emotional. It felt like I’d found one of my people.

“No one knew what I was. Except my father, and he never…” I stopped, remembering Josiah’s last moments, dead on the floor of a library, and I remembered my response. The death I’d caused, not out of self-defense or by accident, but out of the need for retribution. In a life of questionable choices, it was the only thing I’d done that was truly unforgivable.

I reached for the cup of coffee Luke handed me. I rarely drank it, preferring tea, but the simple act of stirring in milk and a bit of sugar was calming. I handed the cup to Sera. She preferred it black, but she never turned down morning coffee.

Sera finished my thought. “Our father never found a cure.”

Luke’s eyes flicked between us, seeing no family resemblance, but he shrugged and kept going. “Well, it’s not common knowledge, to be fair. I didn’t know there was a cure until I stumbled right into it. I guess I got lucky.” He didn’t sound certain.

“What is it? How do I get it? Can we do it today?” The words rushed out, and only Luke’s pained expression kept me from badgering him further.

Luke rolled one of the boiled eggs on a table to crack it, then peeled off the shell. He sprinkled salt on the top, then bit off half.

If I was a suspicious sort, I’d say he was stalling.

He finished the egg and washed it down with a sip of coffee. “Are you that far gone? No other options?”

The madness writhed within me. Most of the time, I could hold it at bay, but it was always there, always looking for opportunities to escape.

It always found one.

“No,” I said, with absolute certainty. “No other options.”

He nodded, as if he expected that response. “Right. Well, I can help you with some basic stuff to get through the day. But if you want a permanent solution…”

“Yes,” I interrupted. “Permanent, yes.” I could barely contain myself. It was more than I’d dared to dream. If I could control myself, maybe even learn how other duals could be cured, I could reason with the council. I could convince the old ones I wasn’t a threat.

Maybe they’d let me live.

“It’s not going to be easy,” he began. “In fact, it may be the hardest thing you’ve ever done. And I’ll tell you what to do, but I won’t go with you. Information’s all you’re getting. First, you’ll need…”

He didn’t finish. Simon rushed in, once again wearing skin, and began yanking on clothes. “Don’t you hear it?”

He scowled, frustrated by our limited hearing.

Mac went still, listening. “It’s the Bronco. It’s coming back, fast. There’s a second vehicle right behind it.” He moved to my side, as if he could protect me through his bulk alone. “It’s not the camper.”

Sera and Carmichael stood, faces set. His gun was already drawn, and Sera’s fingers sparked as her fire roared to life.

Luke calmly took another bite, then crouched by his bed and withdrew a well-worn canvas messenger bag. He slung this over his neck and arranged it so the bag was well-balanced. He unholstered his gun. “Suppose I knew I couldn’t hide forever. Any chance this isn’t the waters that’ve been following you?”

As much as I wanted to tell him there was a chance, it would be a lie.

“Then I guess we’re fighting our way out of this.” He looked at me, and to my surprise his lips quirked. “You wanna be Butch or Sundance?”

Before I could respond, he stepped outside to face the council members who wanted us dead.

CHAPTER 5

T
he Bronco roared up with Miriam at the wheel and Johnson beside her. She always managed to cajole a bit more from the engine, and the SUV careened toward us at an unnatural speed. The camper van and Airstream were nowhere in sight.

The passenger door swung open before they came to a complete stop. Johnson jumped out. I’d only seen him and Carmichael in their capacity as FBI agents, which so far as I could tell required them to ask a lot of questions while wearing pained expressions. Though I knew Johnson had a military background, I was still surprised by how effortlessly he moved. He landed on the balls of his feet and spun, pulling the rear door open.

“Get in,” hollered Miriam through the open window.

We rushed to obey, but it was too late. Miriam could only break so many laws of physics, and there was no way an old Bronco could outrun a brand new SUV at full acceleration. The council’s new ride was a top of the line four-wheel drive with a big old performance engine. It drew to a rumbling stop in front of the Bronco.

Miriam reversed, making it a full hundred feet before she realized no one was attempting to escape with her. It was pointless. If we drove away, they’d follow us—and they were faster. She hit the brakes, but she didn’t turn off the engine or step outside the vehicle.

The SUV’s doors opened, and two elementals exited.

We’d known it was them. Simon had confirmed it. Even so, until they stood a few feet from me, I’d hoped he was wrong and it was two random waters chasing us across the desert. Maybe Deborah’s and Michael’s descendants, elementals with the same faces but a fraction of their power.

It was a foolish hope. Asking others to hunt me down would require the council to tell them what I was, and they wished to keep my existence secret. I was evidence of their failure, the dual magic who’d hidden under their collective noses for decades. They’d prefer to eradicate their failure with as few witnesses as possible.

Deborah Rivers was probably the oldest and most powerful water in the world, and she wasn’t my biggest fan. Considering she’d seen me go batshit crazy and immolate a man while in the depths of madness, I couldn’t really blame her.

Next to her stood Michael Bay, a man I remembered mainly for his unfortunate name and strong desire to run away from trouble rather than toward it. Despite this, he was an old one, and you didn’t get to be his age without gathering a tremendous amount of power. He was nervous, and had likely hoped they never found us, but he could still drown my friends in a heartbeat, even in the middle of the desert.

They were the only remaining members of a governing body that should have held six members, a single representative from each of the old families. Three members had died. The sixth spot technically belonged to Grams, but she couldn’t fulfill her duties while incarcerated. The slot should go to my great-grandmother or one of my aunts, but there’d been no effort to fill it. It would be a while before another Brook was welcome on the council.

Deborah appeared wary, but she wasn’t afraid, and that worried me more than anything. They might be two of the strongest waters in the world, but that strength wasn’t a guarantee against our ragtag group of magic, claws, and firearms.

My friends seemed to have a silent agreement to appear non-threatening. There was no reason to escalate things before we had to. Johnson, Carmichael, and Luke all held guns at their side, but they kept the safeties on. Simon and Mac remained in their human forms. Vivian stood next to Simon, seeking the comfort of her best friend. If it did come to a fight, she had no weapon of her own, and Simon could do little more than claw someone and run away. Miriam stood near them, her hard expression an unsettling contrast against her soft features.

As for Sera, she knew better than to summon any flames the others could extinguish with a thought. Instead, she tried to destroy them with a glare.

Deborah and Michael gave the others a cursory glance and saved their close scrutiny for me. I thought they were checking for signs of madness, and I resisted the urge to cross my eyes and have a conversation with myself. That might be considered escalating the situation.

“No lackeys?” I asked, pointing at the two of them, then gesturing to the nine of us. “Feeling that confident?”

Deborah took a step toward me, though Michael remained by the car.

She didn’t look at me like I was a threat. Rather, she studied me with a curled lip, as though I was a bug she very much wanted to squash.

“I’m aware that you can destroy both of us with ease, Ms. Brook.” The polite address was delivered with a sneer. “However, our deaths would cost you dearly.”

Fear settled in my chest, a heavy weight, and I struggled to take a full breath. “You may not believe this, but I wasn’t planning on hurting you or anyone else. Not again.” Unbidden, the image of David writhing in a circle of flames rose to greet me.

I pushed the thought away. The madness might live in me, but I couldn’t afford to live in it.

Deborah studied me. I doubted she missed a single expression on a face that had always been too transparent for my own good.

“Regardless of your intent, I believed insurance was necessary.” She held out an unsealed envelope. It was large, the sort used to mail documents that shouldn’t be folded.

I glanced at the others, seeing my uncertainty reflected in their eyes. I didn’t want to play the game on her terms, but I saw no other option. I took the envelope and upended it, sliding its contents into my hand. It didn’t contain documents. It held photos.

I flipped through them, then again more slowly, needing time to understand what I was seeing. With each image, my anger rose and the tight rein I kept on my power frayed.

The first photo was of the Rat Trap, a bar Sera and I knew well. As undergrads, we’d passed many drunken hours beneath its roof. It was owned by Frank, a human and a good man who had nothing to do with any of this. He wasn’t even aware elementals existed. The front door was barred, a government sign in the windows informing me that the building was closed for health violations.

I moved to the next image. It featured an oversized monstrosity, a McMansion built in front of the Tahoe National Forest. The ugly home was little more than a gateway to that forest, where Carmen Avila shifted into a mountain lion and claimed the woods as her own.

The next photo was of a wooden house built sometime in the sixties. It was the home of Mac’s uncle. Will had taken Mac in when he chose civilization over the feral life of a bear and left his father and brother behind in the forest. Mac’s teenaged cousins also lived there, only one of whom was a shifter. Not all the children of shifters were born with the changing gene. They grew up as humans in a magical world. Without any power of his own, Brandon would be even more vulnerable to the elementals’ attacks than the others.

Sera’s beloved red Mustang was parked in front of the house. We’d asked Will to liberate it from the clutches of airport parking once it became obvious we wouldn’t be returning anytime soon. The car’s presence confirmed this was a recent picture.

The final image held two blond elementals I’d never seen before. The women held five-gallon cans of gasoline and a lighter. They smiled at the camera, the threat explicit. Do as we say, or be the cause of your friends’ deaths.

I took careful note of their faces. I never wanted to kill again, but if I ran into them down the road, I could give them one hell of a wedgie.

Besides, what I wanted meant little to the madness. It studied the images too, full of hungry malevolence. The longer I stood before the council, the more agitated it grew. It craved release. It demanded that I buy my freedom with death.

I dug my fingernails into my palm, forcing myself to remain present.

Maybe the others sensed it. Sera moved to my left side and Mac stood behind me. The power I’d given him rose to the surface, seeking to connect with my own. I took the comfort and stillness he offered.

Mac reached over my shoulder, grabbed the photos, and ripped them in two.

My voice was level when I spoke at last. “Most people would avoid angering a dual. I thought you were smarter than this, Deborah.”

She ignored my jibe. “This is only the beginning, of course. How old are you now? In your sixties? You left your island home a mere fifteen years ago, but that is long enough to meet people and make connections. You also are familiar with a weak ice, are you not? A local policeman. We would not hurt innocent elementals, of course, but he has a human wife. Human co-workers. This bear…” She paused for a moment, as if unwilling to acknowledge Mac’s presence. “He still has family in the forest, doesn’t he? Wildfires are so common in late summer.”

Deborah continued, unaware of my growing turmoil. “If you are as stable as you claim to be, I’m certain you would do anything to prevent harm befalling those you care about.”

“What do you want?” I spoke through gritted teeth. I was hanging on by a thread.

“I wish for you to return with us, of course. It is impossible for a dual magic to be loose. The damage you could cause is unimaginable.”

Luke shuffled his feet, and I fought the urge to glance at him. He’d received nothing more than a cursory examination when they first saw him. Either they hadn’t figured out what we were searching for in the desert or they didn’t realize we’d already found it.

“And then you’ll execute me.” It wasn’t a question.

Deborah’s voice was so gentle it could almost be described as kind. “Aidan, I know how you were raised. I have met your family. You were brought up by good people who instilled a sense of honor and responsibility in you. Even now, it pains me to keep your mother and grandmother locked up.”

I winced. It didn’t just pain me. It tore at me every day.

“Exactly,” Deborah said. “You still feel compassion. Though you hope you will not murder again, it is inevitable. If you live, it will be as a monster. Come with us. You can end your life in relative peace, on your terms. Those you love will remain safe.”

A low growl rumbled behind me, and I thought Sera actually hissed.

The problem was Deborah wasn’t wrong. Not entirely.

However, I’d had months to consider my options. Sure, the first had been “run for your life and never get caught,” but that option came with too many downsides. There was another possibility, though, one on which I’d pinned all my hopes.

“What if I learn to control it? If I can prove I’m not a threat to anyone?”

Deborah shook her head. “Duals wreaked havoc for hundreds of years before we decided to eliminate them. There is no reason to believe you will find a solution when others did not.”

“But what if I could. Give me a month, Deborah. Like you said, I’m in my sixties. That’s a whole lot of time spent not harming people. I can manage another thirty days. If I figure out how to do it, imagine what would change. Full-blooded elementals with different magics could have children together without the fear of sending more duals into the world. You’re already keeping Trent Pond alive, experimenting with the drug. Why not let me live, too? One month. That’s all I ask.”

When I started speaking, I presented a reasonable argument. By the end, I was begging. Pride was for people who didn’t have a death sentence hanging over their heads.

Michael’s eyes darted between us. “That seems like a good compromise, Deborah. We can go now.” He climbed into the driver’s seat, more than ready to leave us far behind. Michael hadn’t grown a backbone since our last encounter.

Deborah moved to the car and opened the rear door, gesturing me inside. “I do not consent to your terms. We will not allow you to be loose in the world.”

I caught a flash of dark blue against the car’s black interior. Another person. One with a needle in hand, I’d guess. The council would have replenished their supply after we left my family’s island.

My feet were glued to the ground. “Thirty days,” I repeated. It was becoming a mantra. I needed more time. We hadn’t been through everything—my friends hadn’t uprooted their lives, my family hadn’t sacrificed their freedom—for it to end like this. Not when Luke had been seconds from telling me how to control it.

Deborah saw my resistance. “At most, we can offer you the same chance at life Trent currently has. You will be contained while your associates pursue this mythical cure. If you come with us now, we can discuss that possibility.”

The words came too easily. I didn’t believe them, and neither did my rage. It crawled toward the surface, gleeful and determined. Deborah took an involuntary step back when the anger reached my eyes.

“Oh, hell.” Sera glared daggers at the woman. “You couldn’t give her thirty days? Miriam, tell me you brought the case with you.”

Just a little, whispered my fire side. If I only used a little, I could maintain control.

I threw a wall of fire outside the Bronco’s door, blocking Miriam’s exit. “I don’t need drugs,” I insisted, stalking toward Deborah.

The woman used those I loved as bargaining chips. She couldn’t be allowed to harm them, and I couldn’t let her continue to pursue me.

For the first time, Deborah looked afraid. She was so old and powerful, so unaccustomed to being threatened, that perhaps she’d never truly believed I would harm her. It’s why she chose to meet me in the desert with nothing but a few photos as defense.

Michael turned the ignition, ready to flee.

Deborah hurried into the passenger seat and slammed the door shut.

One moment we stared at each other through the glass, and the next the car lurched forward, aiming straight for the nearest person—who happened to be the other dual.

Luke leapt out of the way, performing a neat roll as he landed. Michael made a narrow u-turn and headed back.

Elementals could only die in a car accident if we were killed instantly, unable to access the healing powers of our element. Based on Michael’s grim face and the speed with which he approached, it seemed instant death was very much the plan.

“Don’t you dare, Ade. Don’t you fucking dare.” Sera’s voice cut through the growing rage, reminding me what a bad idea this was. How much I needed to fight the worst part of myself.