The Crystal's Curse (27 page)

She stood in the doorway and looked directly into Erik’s eyes. With a smile on her face, she said, “You don’t need to change time. I’m here.”

Lrence held his breath, hoping that this was the distraction that he needed, but even if Kafra could get between Erik and the Carsons, Lrence could only protect one of them. Without the crystal, he couldn’t transport even one of them. If only he had brought the other crystal and taught them how to use it, he could just throw it to them and they could both get away, leaving Kafra and him to deal with Erik. As it was, he had no choice but to sit still and wait to see what Kafra’s plan was. He cautioned Joseph and Joshua to be patient with his eyes.

“Kafra,” Erik whispered her name. His eyes softened. For him time stood still. He remembered the silkiness of her skin and the way her hair always smelled like lilacs. He could almost taste her kisses. He took a step toward her. “You look even more beautiful than I remembered.”

She walked between Lrence and Joseph, staring directly into his eyes commanding his attention. She stopped directly in front of him. Reaching out to touch his face, she whispered, “I missed you.”

Both Joshua and Lrence started to rise. Before they could try anything, Erik reached out to her and quickly drew her to his side, keeping the gun leveled at the others.

She leaned into him and put her arm around his waist. “Let the others go.
You and I can be together wherever you want, just the two of us.”

Lrence couldn’t believe his ears.
Surely, she didn’t mean to sacrifice herself to save them. Where were Remnr and Demitri? Did she even call them?
Lrence blamed himself. He should have stayed, made sure there was a workable plan before coming.

Erik looked at her, keeping the others in his peripheral vision. “Oh, how I wish I could believe that you still loved me. That this wasn’t just a ploy to save your brother and the earthlings.” He caressed her face with his finger, watching her reaction.

Kafra cuddled in closer and looked deep into his eyes. “I do love you. I’ve had a long time to think about it. I couldn’t go back to tell you because I’m a fugitive and they would just lock me up. But now that you’re here, and I know that you still care for me, we can be together here.” She sounded so sincere that Lrence almost believed it.

Erik held his breath. Was it possible? He yearned to believe her, but the years apart had made him cynical. Torn but still unconvinced, he said, “Even if I believed that you love me, I don’t want to stay here. I hate this planet and the years it took from me. I want to go back. Start over. I want to have all those years back.”

Softly so as not to anger him, she said, “I regret the years we lost too. That’s my fault, but I can’t do that to our people. Think of the devastation that could happen. How can we be happy knowing the chaos that we caused?” she pleaded.

Erik’s jaw clinched and he pushed her away. “You still care what happens to these people. That’s all that really matters to you
, isn’t it?” His gun wavered for a moment, but before they could react, he was once more in control.

She closed the gap between them, only daring to put her hand on his arm. “No, I was talking about our kind, the people on the Station.”

He raised one eyebrow. “You really don’t care about these earthlings anymore?” He asked with a sneer.

Desperate for him to believe her, she bowed her head so he wouldn’t see her eyes. “No, I don’t.”

Lrence watched Erik’s face. He could see Erik struggling with the decision. Would he be willing to go on the run with her? Was getting Kafra back his only agenda? Lrence was afraid, if this was the only plan Kafra had, it wouldn’t work. Erik would not be content to leave him alive. He had spent too many years hating Lrence. Yet he had to know that Kafra wouldn’t stand by and let him kill her brother. Which would be stronger, love or hate? Lrence knew the moment Erik reached a decision, when hate won out. He braced himself.

Erik leveled the gun at Lrence and
, without a word of warning, he swung it over and shot Joshua in the chest. The loud gunshot startled everyone except Lrence, who had expected it.

Joshua gasped. H
is eyes closed and he slipped to the floor. Joseph lunged toward Joshua trying to prevent him from falling.

Kafra screamed, “No!” She twisted away from Erik and ran to kneel down beside Joshua. Both Lrence and Joseph dropped to their knees next to Joshua on the floor. Lrence pressed his hands down hard over the wound, tryi
ng to staunch the flow of blood. Joseph moaned and cradled Joshua’s head in his lap. Underneath Joshua, the pool of blood grew.

Kafra could see blood pumping out between Lrence’s fingers. Even when she knew that they were too late to save him, she was ripping her shirt to use as a pad.

Erik grabbed her by the arm jerking her up. “See I knew it was a lie. Now take me to the nearest portal before I shoot your precious brother.”

She struggled for a moment, but it was obvious that she had no choice. Joshua was going to die, and there was nothing she could do to stop it. Erik wouldn’t hesitate to shoot Lrence if she continued to resist. She shot an agonized look at both Joseph and Lrence before pulling the crystal from her pocket and rotating it in her hands. Both Erik and Kafra disappeared.

Joshua’s eyes closed. He took a couple of ragged breaths, followed by a gurgling, and then he was still. Lrence tried CPR for several minutes until it was clear Joshua was gone. The silence was claustrophobic. The coppery smell of Joshua’s blood filled the room.

Lrence, finally giving up, sat back on his heels. His pants and shoes were soaked in blood. His face mirrored the anguish in Joseph’s eyes. Neither could believe what had happened. Why Joshua? Lrence had been sure that Erik meant to kill him. He’d been prepared for that. It should have been him, not Joshua! Instead, he had failed again.

Joseph looked up through his tears. “You have to stop him.”

Lrence stood up. Looking down on the lifeless body of Joshua, grief and guilt washed over him in endless waves. Taking a deep breath, he tried to pull himself together. He knew that Joseph was right. He needed to focus on stopping Erik. He needed to try to save Kafra, but how? He could never get there in time. He looked at Joseph and said, “I’m sorry. It’s too late. I can’t follow him. I don’t have a crystal.”

Gently laying Joshua’s body to the side, Joseph quickly rose and headed for his den, returning seconds later with a black box. “Here is the crystal that Joshua gave me. I brought it home so I could give it back to you. Now hurry.”

Lrence opened the box and took out the crystal. “This is set to return to Guatemala, but if you’ll lend me your car, I may still be able to stop him.”

Joseph reached into his pocket and threw him a set of keys.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Lrence sprinted for the garage. Burning rubber down the driveway, he drove as fast as possible. He couldn’t help thinking that if Erik succeeded, he could disappear any minute and Joseph‘s car would be hurtling down the highway at eighty miles per hour without a driver. Would he go back forty years to standing outside the secured vault containing the power crystals, or just disappear into nothingness? At this point, he wasn’t sure he cared one way or the other. He hadn’t been able to save Harry or keep his promise to him. He had completely misread Erik and his intentions. Despair and an overwhelming sense of failure threatened to engulf him.

It had been his decision to steal the power stones to protect the earthlings. Cnoc, Kubal, Harry, and Joshua were all dead. Remnr, Demitri, and Kafra were fugitives. He blamed himself for each of those failures. How many more lives
had he destroyed that he didn’t even know about? How many more lives would yet be destroyed because of him? Not for the first time, Lrence wondered if he had made the wrong decision. Looking back, he could see that he had made mistakes. Only now, he finally realized that his biggest mistake was not in trying to do the right thing, but in allowing fear to prevent him from following through. He could still make a difference.

Focus he told himself, there might still be time. Time had been his enemy from the beginning, always too much time. Now maybe there wasn’t enough. He swerved in and out of traffic, driving up on the sidewalk to barrel through a gas station, and then a parking lot to avoid stopping. Thankfully, his alien brain allowed him to maneuver, while still concentrating on the problem at hand.

There weren’t any portals on the space station. In order to access the past of the space station, Erik would have to transport back in earth’s time to before they stole the crystals and then beam back to the station. Once Erik stopped the theft, Lrence figured he and the others in this time line along with the crystals would disappear. It was going to be close. Erik would want to leave himself enough time to be able to arrange a trap. However, he wouldn’t want to take the risk of going too far back in case Lrence was lying about having only two crystals.

Startled by the ringing of the communicator in his ear, Lrence almost missed the turnoff to his house. It was Remnr.

“Lrence, we slowed Erik down but we weren’t able to stop him. He took our crystals as well. He’s gone back in time.”

“Kafra?”

“She was hysterical so he left her here.”

Lrence sighed with relief. Kafra was safe and there was still a chance to stop Erik. “I’m coming up the drive. I’ll be with you in a minute. I have a crystal.” The minute the car stopped, he threw open the door. Running as fast as his super strength would allow he was in the basement within seconds.

Demitri, a bear of a man, lie on the floor, his face pale. One leg of his pants had been sliced apart to the upper thigh. Sweat ran down his face and he clinched his teeth. Kafra knelt beside him beaming a thin stream of light into the large hole in his leg.

Lrence asked, “How bad is it?”

Demitri winced. “Just a flesh wound. If this woman would stop poking at me and making it worse, I’d be fine. Ow. Aren’t you finished yet?”

“Just hold still. It wouldn’t hurt if you’d let me give you a shot.”

Remnr, smaller than Demitri, but still powerfully built, was doing his best to hold him down. Demitri closed his eyes and balled his hands into fists as the wound closed up. Through gritted teeth he said, “You just want to put me out so you can have your way with me.”

Kafra rolled her eyes. “As if. The bullet made a huge mess of his leg, but it’s nothing I can’t fix. However, he’s lost a lot of blood and if he tries to get up now, he’ll just pass out.” She looked up hopefully at Lrence. “Joshua?” When he shook his head, she rocked back on her heels. Tears rolled down her face.

Remnr slid a pillow under Demitri’s head. He knelt beside Kafra and put his arms around her. Looking up, Remnr explained. “The plan was for Kafra to lure Erik back here. When Demitri and I saw the portal light up, we stood on each side. We figured whoever was closest could grab the gun before Erik knew what was happening. It might have worked. I grabbed for Erik, but he shoved Kafra between us. Demitri managed to grab the gun just as Erik pulled the trigger. When Kafra tried to help Demitri, Erik threatened to shoot her unless we all handed over our crystals.”

Lrence nodded his understanding. Walking over to check the coordinates on the portal, he said, “I think we can still stop him.”

“What’s your plan?” asked Remnr.

“In order to change th
e past, Erik transported back forty years, directly to the old beam up site. I’m going back further in time and intercept Erik before he can beam up to the station. Remnr, I’ll transport to your portal first and go on from there. Once I’m gone, you dismantle this portal so Erik can’t come back and try again.” Lrence opened a drawer and took out the gun he had taken from the guard in the cave. He stuffed it into his belt. He stepped up to the portal. The faces of his friends were grim. This was exactly the kind of thing that their parents warned them about.

Remnr stood. “Even if you succeed in stopping Erik, we don’t know what the consequences will be.”

Lrence threw up his hands. “What do you want me to do? We can’t just stand here and do nothing. It can’t be worse than what he’s planning.”

Remnr nodded. He put his hand on Lrence’s shoulder, as he climbed into the portal next to him. “Lrence, are you sure you can do this? If you hesitate, we all lose. If you give him any chance at all, you’re dead. He’s a better shot than you are.”

Demitri struggled to stand. “Maybe I should go. I know I can kill him.” Kafra rushed to steady him as he swayed.

Lrence smiled at his intrepid friend. “Thanks. But this is my job.”

Leaving Kafra to tend to Demitri, Lrence and Remnr transported to Remnrs’s portal so Lrence would have some place to return to once he took care of Erik. Remnr grabbed one of his crystals to transport back to disable Lrence’s portal. Remnr’s parting words were, “For once in your life, don’t talk. Just shoot him.”

Lrence set the coordinates to arrive at the beam up site several minutes before Erik. He materialized in an empty antechamber. The Watchers established the equipment in underground caves whenever possible. Looking at his watch, he estima
ted that he had approximately twenty minutes before Erik showed up. He saw two technicians coming toward him. He flattened himself against the wall trying to blend into the shadows. If he wanted to preserve the timeline, he couldn’t afford to be seen. Another technician joined them and they stopped and talked. Lrence glanced at his watch as the minutes ticked by, willing them to move on. Finally, they all turned and left down another corridor. Once they were out of sight, Lrence ran.