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It was after midnight before everyone had given up waiting and retreated, each to our own room. Mine was stuffy from the heat of the day so I opened the window, but the stillness outside offered little relief. I lay on the feather mattress, grateful beyond words for a soft, safe bed, a full stomach, and a roof overhead. Unfortunately, my gratitude didn’t stop me from thinking about Dalton...or Will. Not knowing what fate had befallen either of them, my mind filled with visions of Dalton floating face down on some bank of the Mississippi, Will only God knew where. Even with the distance between us, his energy tugged at my heart—a small assurance he was still alive. I flipped onto my other side, staring blindly into the darkness, my bones steeped in restlessness.
Graves had said that Will had fallen off the radar. I couldn’t help but wonder if something had gone terribly wrong on his journey along the northern route and back through Vegas in pursuit of his father. If he’d been captured, Graves would have known. But if he’d somehow gotten himself into trouble or been hurt, he could be anywhere, overtaken by thieves or worse. Releasing another sigh, I flopped to my other side again and punched the pillow.
I counted the calendar days in my head since I’d last checked. Today was Will’s birthday. It would have been nice to celebrate with him. With the way Will lived his life on the edge all the time, challenging his limitations at every turn, it was shocking that he had made it to eighteen. A wave of longing and loneliness washed over me. Tears burst to the surface. Too tired to fight them, I let myself cry.
∞∞∞
I’d just fallen asleep, my tears having run their course and exhaustion finally taking over, when the sound of a crash brought me to consciousness. I bolted upright, my feet hit the floor, and I’d tugged on a pair of jeans before my eyes had fully adjusted. I peeked out the window. The driveway and front lawn were awash with silvery moonlight and a vehicle—what appeared to be a delivery van—was parked on top of the roses, having taken out the corner of the front porch. Smoke rose from the van, but no one stepped out.
Heart pounding, I dashed down the stairs, meeting Maia, Tyler and Garnet, all rushing toward the sound. Maia reached the door first, yanked it open, and jumped down the porch steps before a warning to be careful had escaped my lips. What kind of crazy lunatic would crash into the house, and where had they come from in the middle of the night?
My fears fled when Maia pulled the door of the van open and Dalton’s whiskered face appeared. Relief was short- lived, however, when I caught full sight of his condition. “Let me take care of him,” I said, meeting Maia’s stubborn refusal with a stern look of my own. I stepped in beside her. “Trust me.” She looked from Dalton—whose nose was bleeding onto his tattered shirt, his head lolling—and then back to me. She nodded and moved away.
I focused all my attention on Dalton, who was coming around. “Can you hear me?” I asked, shaking his shoulder gently.
“Stop shouting, will you?” His hand flew to his head, but his eyes were unfocused and I sensed his pulse racing.
My hands hovered over his body, an inch above the surface, as I assessed his injuries. I’d learned that I didn’t have to actually touch someone to know what was happening inside them. It was simply a matter of focused intention, listening to the energy that shifted between us. I pinched the bridge of his nose and tilted his head forward slightly, supporting it as I stanched the flow of blood and stabilized him. Dalton had multiple burns, none life-threatening, but he’d also suffered a concussion, which was sometimes tricky to cure. Most parts of the body were resilient and easy to heal, but I found the brain unpredictable.
“Help me get him inside,” I said, making room for Tyler to squeeze in beside me. Between me, Tyler, and Maia, we were able to half carry, half drag Dalton inside to the living room, Garnet making a way and setting up pillows on the antique sofa ahead of us.
A pained groan escaped as we laid him down. I sent Garnet to boil some water and Maia to bring towels, while I had Tyler help me remove Dalton’s still damp clothing—pieces charred and stuck to his skin. I needed to clean all of his wounds before I tried to heal them, or he’d end up with debris left behind under the skin and a terrible infection—a lesson I’d learned the hard way when my ability to heal others had first shown itself when I was small. The nuances of my power and its limitations were still a mystery to me. I worried about Dalton as he slipped in and out of consciousness, knowing time was against him and that my hesitation might mean life or death.
Maia carefully cleaned Dalton’s wounds while I held my hands over his head. As white light began to emanate from my palms, a warmth washed over me. I breathed in the satisfying energy that rose to the surface when I used my gift to heal someone. The world around me disappeared. Positive intention poured from my heart and, in my mind’s eye, I saw the swelling around Dalton’s brain recede. A moment later, his eyes slowly opened as if shaking off a deep sleep. Maia made a sound of relief and threw her arms around his neck.
Dalton grinned and hugged her. “Don’t worry, Maia. I’m fine.” His gray eyes came up to meet mine, a nod of understanding and gratitude passing between us. “Thanks,” was all he said, but it was enough to have me release the breath I was holding.
I continued to work on the minor cuts, scrapes and burns that Dalton had sustained in the attack on the ship and its subsequent destruction, relating our story and hearing what happened on his end.
“From what I saw, the captain and his crew were probably killed,” said Dalton, his features hard. “Luckily, I was thrown overboard before the last attack. I came up about a mile downstream, disoriented and beat-up, but alive. I stole the first vehicle I found and made it here as fast as I could.” He rubbed the new skin on his arm where I’d healed a particularly nasty burn. He shook his head in disbelief and grinned. “It’s no wonder Sam wanted to keep you hidden up in the hills. I bet those Industry boys would love to get their hands on you.” Before I could respond, his smile faded again and he rubbed the back of his neck. “Maybe my brain was too rattled to say, but I thought for sure someone was on my tail. I think I lost ’em outside of Memphis, though.”
Dalton swung his legs over the edge of the sofa, putting Maia on high alert. Although we’d only undressed him to his skivvies, she wrapped a blanket around his shoulders. “Stop fussing over me, girl,” he said, his ornery side returning. Maia seemed to also accept this as a good sign. She handed him a pair of clean camo pants and a T-shirt and tugged on Tyler’s arm.
“Maia wants me to tell you...you sure you want me to say that?” Tyler stared at the girl, his eyes wide and his face flushed. She nodded, her chin firming and her eyes staring blankly ahead as Dalton dragged the pants up over his hips. “She says you were a jerk to leave us on our own and you shouldn’t have gone off to try to rescue the captain. You could have gotten yourself killed.”
Dalton glanced between Maia and Tyler, his eyes narrowing. He pulled the T-shirt on over his head. “You’re kidding, right?” Then his face went still and he looked back at Maia, whose dark eyes were like shiny saucers, her mouth in a firm scowl. He glanced from me to Tyler and back. “I liked it better when I didn’t know what she was thinking,” he grumbled.
“Believe me, being able to read minds is not half as great as it sounds.” Tyler shifted his feet, avoiding eye contact with Maia again.
“I bet you’d make a good partner at the poker tables,” Dalton joked as he ran his hands through his hair to straighten the snarled mass.
Before we got too far off topic, I interrupted. “You need to get some sleep if we’re going to travel to Nashville tomorrow.” As much as I knew he needed rest to completely heal from his injuries, the queasy weakness creeping into my bones told me I needed it just as much. The day’s events and using my healing abilities on Maia, myself, and now Dalton in the past twenty-four hours was taking its toll.
“We have to be on the road at first light,” said Dalton, a slight wobble in his step. “I’ll try to contact Sam again before we leave.”
“The sooner we reach him, the better,” I agreed, concern weighing heavily on my heart.
We said our good nights and I heard Dalton fiddle with an alarm keypad and check the perimeter before his heavy steps thumped up the stairs. Maia’s room was at the end of the hall next to Dalton’s, and Garnet, Tyler, and I had chosen three rooms at the opposite end. Doors closed up and down the hallway and everyone settled into their respective rooms before I finally let my guard down, anxious to get a few hours of rest before embarking on the next leg of our journey.
A wisp of a breeze wafted through the window and the curtains billowed in the moonlight, casting an eerie dancing shadow on the wood floor. With the house now in complete darkness, I slipped out of my jeans one more time and snuggled onto the feather mattress, exhaustion taking over as my head hit the pillow.
