The Empath (The Above and Beyond Series Book 1) (11 page)

Chapter 67

MY BODY WAS weak, wobbly, spent. The pain of moving, only small to the pain of knowing, of feeling. I had breathed every moment of Jenny’s final seconds. I had lain there with her in the hallway, the breeze of the storm tickling her legs, the warm blood from her wounds pooling around her.

I had made a choice to be there with her, in that moment, I had somehow lent her my strength, I had absorbed the pain she should have felt into my own being. I stayed beside her, singing to her, talking to her. She spent her final moments, her hand gripping mine, her eyes on mine.

“I’m sorry,” she told me. “I’m sorry.”

“It doesn’t matter, it doesn’t matter anymore.”

“The girls . . . please, save them,” she said.

Before I could answer, she was gone. Her eyes flickered shut, her chest ceasing to rise. I rubbed my hand over her forehead, stroked it, stayed until the police hammered up the porch steps. How I’d been there, I didn’t know, but it had taken more from me than I had left to give.

Now I watched Renee stroke the back of my hand with her thumb, her tears soft, silent in the light of the campfire. Bill was with her but Skip had left to be with Eli. They would be looking for the girls.

If I could have spoken, I would have tried to tell them but I had no more energy, no more fight.

So I watched as Bill set up the campsite for Renee and she bathed my forehead with cool cloths. The sun had set and the stars sprinkled out across the black canopy of sky. The half moon was ringed with a halo, a peaceful night, a calm night, as though the world were at rest in spite of the madness.

Renee’s eyelids drooped when Bill left us but she would not leave my side and so I didn’t leave either. She talked to me and sung gently, same as I had done for Jenny. Her eyelids drooped a little more as her tears wore out her shattered mind. She rested her head on my shoulder and fell asleep.

I was about to leave, to unchain myself, but a movement from the distance stopped me. The dust kicked up over the road and stirred Renee. She hovered over me, gun out, eyes focused on the approaching car. The black hood came into view and she lowered her weapon as my father stumbled out of his car. His face white, his hand rubbing at his chest. 

“Any news?” Renee asked.

My father shook his head. He looked wrecked in body, mind, and spirit. His guilt seemed to circle him like a vulture, picking at him. From my position I could sense so much of his pain.

His eyes on me, he hurried to us. “Any change?”

Renee bit her lip and raised her hand as if she wanted to comfort my father, then she dropped it and sighed. “Not for the better, she’s barely breathing.” 

My father collapsed onto his knees beside me. “Oh God, please.” His face screwed up and he let out a howl of agony from deep inside. “Please!” His roar at the night sky echoed out. He buried his head in my shoulder and gripped my arms. His desperation poured out of him. “Please . . . baby . . .”

I went to touch him, to comfort him, but my hand moved through his arm. Too weak. His violent sobs shook through him, the raw pain unbearable to watch.

“Please . . . don’t leave me . . . don’t leave me.”

His pain shot out of him, hitting me like a blast of icy air. I couldn’t bear to watch. It was torture to see him like that.

He dropped his head back and screamed at the sky. “Please.”

He dropped forward, gathered me up, cradled me as he rocked me.

“Please, God . . . Please . . . please bring her back to me . . . please.” His wracked sobs filled the silence as he rocked. “I need to tell you . . . I need to make it right . . . don’t leave . . . please.”

Renee looked up to the sky, her hand over her mouth as she lingered in the background. Her silent tears streamed down her face as she stared at the river. Then she took her hand away. “Do you trust me?”

My father looked up, his eyes wide, his nod desperate. “You have an idea?”

Renee was still fixed on the river. No, that was a stupid idea. No, I tried to make a noise, do something, but she couldn’t see me. I was powerless to stop her.

She took a breath and met my father’s eyes. “Help me get her in the river.”

My father frowned. “What?”

Renee went to him and placed her hand on his. “She healed herself in the river.”

In a fit of frantic movement, my father gripped my arms. He grunted as they tried to lift me up, his face reddening. I could see the pain in his chest glowing. He shouldn’t be doing it. He needed his tablets. Renee helped him get my limp body upright. I tried to stop them, but I had no energy to make contact.

“Stop. You need to stop.” My voice made no sound as the breeze stole it away.

They half-carried, half-dragged me as they slipped and squished through the mud to the river bank.

“I’ll go in,” Renee said.

My father held me steady as he frowned at her. “Why?”

Renee sighed. “We have to find your girls. Aeron told me that no one could touch her, that it was too dangerous.”

“It is,” I screamed, praying somehow they would hear my voice but it was no louder to my ears than the river lapping against the rocks.

My father’s eyes hardened as he struggled against slipping in the mud. “Then it’ll be me.” Renee opened her mouth but he shook his head. “Listen, I’ve failed her in every way I could but no more.” He hoisted me up as the mud gave way under his shoes. “If it costs me my soul I’ll get her back.”

And the truth glimmered from him, falling, sparkling, vibrant colors shooting out like fireworks. The words warmed me, seeped inwards, and filled my heart beyond any feeling I’d ever known. Why couldn’t he have said that to me? Why didn’t he tell me?

Renee nodded and let me go as he hauled my limp body up and waded out into the river. He let me down gently into the water so that I floated onto my back and turned to Renee. “What did Aeron do?”

Renee closed her eyes, hugged herself, her brow wrinkled with concentration. “Her hands.” She smiled and looked at him. “Nan told her to wash her hands.”

He raised his eyebrows until his receding hairline twitched. “Nan?”

Renee gave a tilt of her head as she shrugged. “Long story.” She glanced at the cabin. “Wait.”

As my father bathed in the cold river with my body, Renee bolted into the cabin. I went after her, trying to catch hold of her arm, anything to stop her. This was a dumb idea. She sloshed through the water from the fire hoses, coughing at the thick smell of burning in the air.

“Stop. Don’t do this.” I grasped for her hand as she took the creaking safety stairs two at a time. “Stop.”

Renee scrabbled around in the dark until I heard metal scraping as she dragged out Nan’s trunk. She yanked open the lid and I tried to slam it shut again. My hand slipped right through.

“Renee, please. His heart.”

I was helpless. I watched her dig through the debris inside until she found a book. It had to be Nan’s diary.

“No!” I tried to snatch for it but she turned and hurried straight through me. I felt like no more than mist as she did it, displacing and reforming.

All I could do was listen to her footsteps on the stairs, then the sloshing of water as she made her way to the door. I gathered enough to run after her but she was already at the river bank bellowing instructions.

“Nan says that you need to hold her under, you can’t let go until she opens her eyes.”

My father scowled. “Nan wants me to drown her?”

Renee glanced down at the book. “No, yourself.”

I tried to knock the book out of Renee’s hands. Ghosts could do stuff like that couldn’t they. I focused on it, trying to push all my energy through. I heard a splash and I snapped my head around to the river. My father was already sticking his head under the water.

Renee looked into the sky. “Nan says you can see me, Aeron.” She nodded as I looked around me. Was Nan here? “She says that you don’t want me to do this. She says it’s your choice.” Her eyes misted over. “It’s your choice if you live and your choice how long he stays under there.”

“No!” I tried to grab the book. Straight through again. 

Renee continued, she couldn’t hear me. My father was still under the surface. “If you don’t come back, you forfeit his life too. You forfeit your sisters’ lives. Is that what you want?”

“Please, stop it. His heart. Please.” I touched Renee and she shivered.

“You’re the only one who can do this.” She gripped the book. “Aeron, if you don’t, the killer wins.”

I looked at the river. The pain in my father’s heart was visible from under the water. The frantic pumping escalated. His heart. It would give out at any second. My own body started to look cold and as I stood there, I felt more solid. We were both drowning. 

“Aeron, please.” Renee’s voice cracked. “Don’t make me stand here and watch you both die.”

I touched the tears that streamed down Renee’s cheeks. I couldn’t do that to her, to him. The tears felt warm on my fingertip. I stared down at the teardrop, it seeped down my finger, spread up over my hand, my arm, my chest. It spread all over—my feet, my ankles, my legs, my waist, I was being suffocated by it, my heart pounded, the blood screamed in my ears. The water freezing, drowning me, arms holding me down. I opened my eyes and pushed, sending me and my father to the surface.

He coughed and spluttered. His heart still glowed as he gripped hold of his chest. I hacked up the river water from my lungs, spluttering, wheezing, shivering, trying to suck in the cold night air. 

My father looked at me, bent over at the waist, head nearly in the water. His face drained of color as the glowing in his chest became a blast of pain and his knees buckled.

I grabbed for him, placed my hand on his chest, and sucked the pain from him.

“Stay with me.”

His breathing stopped.

“You’re not going anywhere, you hear me.” I squeezed him to me with my other hand and put every drop of love I could from myself into his pores.

Silence. I held him there. I was not letting go. This stopped now. The cloud wasn’t taking him too.

Truth, love, hope. I needed to believe. “Daddy, please. I love you. Don’t go.”

Believe. Don’t give up. Never give up.

The river water lapped at the edges. Renee’s gentle sobs from the bank. The forest sounds, the trees rustling. The stars glimmering above. I put my hand inside his shirt and touched my hand to his chest. Never give up.

“Come back.”

Faint at first, was it there? I had to believe. Believe. Louder, yes, there was something. Something was there. Harder.
Thump, thump, thump
. His heart burst into rhythm against my palm. His gasp in my ear. I held on. He gripped me back. My legs buckled with the effort of healing. His arms wrapped around me. The love pulsed back from him. Energy bounced to and fro, back and forth, building. We were healing each other.

“God, girl, you scared me half to death,” he rasped in my ear. I could feel his joy.

I buried my head in his shoulder, holding fast, every desperate need being answered. He didn’t hate me, he’d risked everything to get me back. He loved me. 

“I thought you didn’t want me.” Tears dribbled into my mouth. “I thought you hated me.”

My father gripped me so tight that I felt like a precious treasure. He’d risked everything for me. “I love you, baby.” He rubbed my back. “I’ve always loved you, baby girl.” He kissed my forehead and looked me in the eyes. “Never forget that, no matter what a jackass I am, I love you.”