Uprising (22 page)

“Mmmmfmpm.”

The taller one has the smarts to gasp and look shocked at least as he sprints towards me.

“My Lord. I’m sorry. We thought you had more time,” he sputtered as he pulled a knife from his pocket and began to cut what I can only assume is rope binding my hands and feet.

Once free of the gag I coughed and licked my too dry lips.

“Don’t call me ‘My Lord’.” I wiped my mouth and scratched my nose groaning with the pleasure of finally reaching it. “Wasn’t this discussed with you? Get me loose fool.”

“Sorry my...sir. Our last Taker preferred us to call him that.”

“I’m not anything like your last Taker,” I scold with certainty.

“I can see that sir. What would you prefer me to call you?”

“Right now? My driver. It’s daylight is it not?”

“Yes sir,” he said and double checked his watch twice while the other idiot, the short rounder one, stood in the corner, frozen like the prey he is.

“Then I can’t fly right now, can I? Call my driver... and then you may call me Malachi from now on. Do you know what Malachi means?”

He extended an arm to help lift my body from the floor and I swatted it away in annoyance. Did he not know who I am?

“No sir. I’m afraid not.”

“Yes. You need be afraid. Malachi means Messenger. And I mean to deliver a message. Would you care to know what that message is...before anyone else.”

I watched his eyes get bright with excitement and his lips part in anticipation at the promise of being special and enlightened. He leaned forward and looked side to side, as if I would whisper it to him.

“Yes. Please sir. Yes.”

“I’m taking over this world. Not unlike your last Taker, pathetic as he was, but I mean to succeed. And I will. How you ask? I’ll show you.” Before he could move another inch I grabbed him and held him to me, like an embrace, placing my palm over his chest and watching the tell tell light of essence spring forth, filling the room and illuminating my preys companion with enough light to see his round face go rounder and his eyes bulge in fright. “By taking no prisoners and showing absolutely no mercy,” I spat out at his life filled me.

Oh yes... I remember this. It’s like a drug. Their expressions and the scent of fear wafting off them like a spring bouquet. I can’t get enough and the humans are even better at sating me, but unfortunately for these two, there are no humans here.

His power and life floats and zings through my veins to my arm then my shoulder, through my chest to my heart. Where I need it most and I can’t help but sigh with the numbing sweet sensation that I get through my whole body. No human or Lighter experience can compare to the utter annihilation of inhibition and personal suffering. I almost forgot how good this feels. Man, it’s good to be back.

And right now, absorbing this fool and anticipating his friend being next...there is nothing but pleasure.

And So, We Meet Again...

The high pitch girly squeals and peals of delight and wonderment were all that could be heard in the concrete block of a home, and I was a little embarrassed to be the most guilty party.

I still wasn’t getting around the best on my foot and almost tripped trying to leap across the couch to get to Lillian. Merrick caught me before further embarrassment was had and I hobbled to her as quick as I could. I could hear murmurs and greetings behind us but couldn’t concentrate on them.

Even though Lillian wasn’t even that great of a friend and I’d only known her for a short four weeks before we parted ways from our first hideout, the basement of the warehouse, I was sure I’d never see them again and have always wondered if they made it or not and where they were. How they were faring.

I feel Lillian’s tears on my neck and glance up to look at her. Oh my. I hadn’t noticed before.

She looks destroyed. As I look around, they all do. Matted and dirty, bruised, injured and broken. Even though she’s glad to see me I can sense something different about her. She’s stronger, physically I can feel her hard arms that used to be soft and feminine around me but also spiritually stronger.

The sweet innocent gleam that once was in her eyes in no longer present. It has been replaced with fierceness and her jaw is set in a determined way that tells me it must stay that way a lot. Makes me wonder what they have been through.

I frame her face with my hands and feel her rough skin and the scars and blemishes on her cheeks.

“Lillian. I thought I’d never see you again. I can’t believe you’re here. How did you find us?”

“We didn’t,” she said, placing her hands on top of mine. “I mean, we did but we didn’t know it was you. Word about you’re flyer got out and we made our way here for shelter. We came down the hatch and there you were,” she says and she starts to sob placing her head on my shoulder again.

“Lillian. Don’t cry. You’re safe here with us.” I try to placate her with my soft reassurances but she continues to cling to me.

I take a look around the room and see other members clinging as well.

Piper.

Piper, the Keeper who hated and resented me for Merrick’s love for me is clinging to him just as much if not more so than Lillian is doing with me. A wave of hot jealousy blares through me. I feel guilty instantly but still...jealous.

Merrick catches my gaze and as I look closer he’s not even hugging her back. In fact he’s trying to extricate her. He pleads with his eyes, begging me to rescue him and I feel the sting leave my stomach. Of course Merrick doesn’t want her hugging him, not after knowing how she feels about him.

I walk Lillian to the couch and set her down.

“I’ll go get you a glass of water, ok? Be right back,” I tell her but make a small pit stop.

“Merrick. I need you in the kitchen. We need to make them some sandwiches or something. I’m sure they are all hungry and thirsty.” I turn to Piper and smile my sweetest grin. “Hey, Piper. I’m glad you’re here. Is everyone alright?”

She pulls back enough to finally glare at me, her fist still knotted in Merrick shirtfront. Her face streaked with tears and dirt, but I feel no sympathy. She is giving me one of the most hateful looks I have ever been on the receiving end of.

“Of course. Sherry. I should have known you’d still be stringing Merrick along,” she all but spat.

“Piper,” Merrick warns.

“Not at all, Piper, but we can talk about that later. Right now I need my husband to come and help me. Excuse us.”

I am satisfied to hear her gasp and I grab Merrick’s arm with a determination to yank if need be but she lets go freely with a surprised look on her face. He puts his arm under mine to help me to the kitchen and then turns to me.

“Thanks.”

“No problem, on my part anyway. What’s with her?” I ask, glancing over his shoulder to see her still glaring.

“Don’t know. I would have thought she’d been in my brain the second she saw me, like she used to, but she didn’t. They must be exhausted. She was genuinely surprised by the husband remark,” he said smirking.

“Yeah. I saw. I’m sorry I threw it out there like that, but I figured that be the fastest way to deal with it.”

Piper is still by far the strangest Keeper I’ve met. She had feelings of jealousy and hate even back when I first met her. That doesn’t seem right considering that Keeper’s themselves don’t harbor those feelings.

“Don’t apologize. I’m glad you did. We have too many other things to deal with right now that to worry about... things like that.”

I nod and pull him down for a quick kiss, he bends willingly even wrapping his arms around me and pulling my feet from the floor. I’m not sure if he’s doing it for me or for her to see but I don’t care. I don’t open my eyes, I don’t want her to think I’m taunting her, I’m not. There are plenty of available men, even other Keepers to suppress her Merrick-appetite. I just hope she realizes that.

I pull back and look up at him to see his green eyes bright and burning.

“I really do need to make something for them. They don’t look so good. You can help if you want but I’m sure you’d rather be catching up with the other Keepers.”

He shakes his head.

“Nope. No where else I’d rather be. Besides, you need me. Admit it, wife,” he says playfully.

“I need you,” I whisper, rolling my eyes and smiling at his sweet consideration.

He kisses me again and we set to the task of making a bagillion sandwiches. I’m stealing cute Calvin’s word of course. Everything is so over exaggerated with him. In his eyes it takes 100 hours to get through a day of boredom. There’s a million cards all over the floor when we play 52 card pickup. And when we make sandwiches for a crew this size, it takes a bagillion of them.

After we get done, with Kay, Lana and Marissa’s help, we pass the ham sandwiches out along with bottles of water. While they eat, Jeff fills everyone in on what we’ve been doing since we parted ways.

I see familiar faces and new ones. We still have Piper and Polly. Yay...

There’s also Susan and Frank with his Keeper Kathy, then of course Lillian and her husband Michael’s Keeper Mitchell. Where is Michael? Oh no. And Sam and Lavonne and the others? Is that why Lillian looks so broken?

There are two new faces. Mitchell introduces them to us as Kenny and Alec. They are both about thirty or forty years old, hard to tell with so much dirt and what have you. Both are ordinary nobodies like me. Not Special and not a Keeper. Seem nice enough but quiet.

I wonder why the bell didn’t ring. We installed a door bell up in the stock room of the store. If we have new visitors or a problem up top, you ring the bell to signal us down below to be alert. I know. Top notch technology, right? It was all we had to work with and it’s efficient. Maybe Margo just didn’t ring it because she brought them down herself. I hope it’s not broken.

Jeff begins to introduce us. It takes a while, which is a good thing. I hope one day we’ll have so many, you can’t keep track anymore. He smiles a huge smile and winks at Marissa when he says her name. When he gets to Merrick and me, he leaves his script behind and improvises.

I love Jeff.

“And most of you know Merrick and Sherry from the basement, but what you don’t know is that they got married since we’ve been down here and they adopted an adorable little girl, Lily, who’s napping right now.”

Then he went on, leaving no one time for anyone to say anything to us or dwell in their negativity. I didn’t have to even look at Piper, though I did, to feel her glare on me. But I also got some smiles and a surprised and amused yet sad look from Lillian.

Merrick pulled me closer into his chest from where we sat on the floor, leaning on the wall and kissed my temple. I smiled thinking how Jeff said we adopted Lily. It wasn’t said or talked about. It wasn’t confirmed. Everyone just took it as it was. She was ours.

I realized I was avoiding Lillian, to some degree. I knew I’d have to ask about Michael and I wasn’t ready yet. Poor Lillian. I can’t imagine loosing Merrick. I remember how she loved Michael. Talked about their future. The kids she wanted with him. It breaks my heart to have to ask her that and remind her, not like she forgot.

Cain was on one side and Merrick on the other when Lillian came to kneel in front of me while we heard the chatter from other’s getting acquainted.

“I know you’re wondering about Michael,” she said bluntly. “He died a week after we left you guys. It was hard to find a place to hide for a while. It actually didn’t have anything to do with
them,
the Lighters
,
ironically. He was electrocuted when he entered an abandoned house that we were scoping out to see if it was safe to stay there, for a while. Somebody had rigged the house for intruders. They were dead already but the trap was still set there. We’ve just been bouncing around, house to house for so long. Never feeling safe. Never getting a full nights sleep. Never knowing which one of us is next...”

She finished and just sat there, looking at the wall behind my head. She started to sway on her knees and her bottom lip started to quiver. I knew she was about to lose it. I left Merrick’s grasp and reached up to hug her, both of us on our knees.

I held her for a minute, feeling the pressure of Merrick’s warm hand on my back. Then I heard an exasperated sigh and a tapping. I look over Lillian’s shoulder to see Polly, watching us and tapping her annoyingly small foot. Her arms crossed and a less than tolerant smile on her lips.

“Oh no. Not this again. Sherry, just leave her alone. She starts this all the time. I mean, how many months has it been for goodness sakes? Michael died a long time ago and he wasn’t even killed by a Lighter or whatever those flying things are, he was killed the normal way. At least you should be grateful for that Lillian. He died a human death, some of us aren’t so lucky.”

It took all my power not to throw Lillian to the side and charge Polly with all my puny strength. I felt my eyes go wide and my breath heave in a heavy long intake. Everyone stayed silent, watching the interlude. Lillian didn’t even turn around.

“I mean,” Polly continued, “why does she get to be the one to complain all the time? None of the rest of us get our way either. Poor Lillian. Poor Michael. Poor sweet innocent blonde Lillian. I’m sick of it!”