Counting Down (34 page)

“What else did you hear?”

“He wants to take control.” Her teeth chattered. “Thinks this is his chance to have power. He’s crazy Kyle. Delusional. He says things about ruling what’s left of the world. Says it’s his turn.”

“Are you hurt?”

“I’m so cold and I think my shoulder is out of the socket. Kyle, he wants me to stay with him so he can use my power whenever he needs it.”

“Oh for fuck’s sake.”

“What?” Jim was beside him, eagerly awaiting answers.

Kyle put up his finger. “Okay, try not to talk again. I don’t want him to hear you and find out we’re coming. I’ll be there soon.”

She whimpered, held back a sob. “Please be careful. I can’t lose you. Not again.”

“I’m here.
I’ll never leave you. Now no more worries my lily girl. We’ll be back in our bunk by nightfall.”

Kyle snapped back to the other men, again resisting the urge to break something. “She’s terrified and hurt. She might even be close to hypothermia.” He shut his eyes, breathed deeply through his mouth. “Whoever gets to him first, take him out. I don’t care about trying to talk to him. I just want him fucking dead.”

* * *

Abby shivered, feeling the pain in her
shoulder increase as her body tensed with the cold. She was in pain, she was blind, and she had never been so cold in her life. But none of that compared to the overwhelming fear that ate away at her middle. Kyle was coming and he was running right between the crosshairs of a sadistic, power hungry madman.

She heard movement beside her, flinched. “Who’s there?”

No one answered but Abby suddenly felt warmer. Hot air wafted in her direction, thawing her cheeks and slowing the shaking in her muscles.

Abby took advantage of the opportunity. “David’s lying about Kyle Windstone. He’s saved all of our lives and given us the tools we need to survive. He’s a good man with a gentle heart. He would never do the things David said.”

“Hey, what are you doing in here?” David’s voice echoed through the room startling Abby and sending fresh pain through her shoulder. “I told you to watch the bitch not keep her warm.”

Suddenly Abby was being yanked up by her wounded shoulder. An agonizing scream pierced the air. “David please,” she whimpered. “My arm.”

She received his hollow laugh in response. “Did your boyfriend find you yet? Is he on his way? I know you can hear him. Where is he?”

“I… I don’t know. I swear.”

She felt a fresh burst of cold air hit her face as he dragged her to the front porch. She sucked in her breath, the frigid air burning her lungs.

He dropped her down hard in a chair. “I know he’s out there. It shouldn’t be taking this long for him to catch up. Tell me where he is.” He slapped her across the face.

Abby reeled back, felt the sting on her skin, the ache in her jaw bone. “I don’t know.” She struggled to keep her voice from wavering. “Maybe he doesn’t know I’m gone.”

“I gave you a chance to be honest with me. You should’ve taken it.” He paused, his boots pounding back and forth on the porch floor. Suddenly his face was next to hers. “I heard you whispering to him.”

David ripped the blindfold from her eyes, taking some of her hair with it. Abby squinted, her eyes adjusting to the foggy daylight.

He fisted his hand in her hair, yanked her head back with a jerk. “Windstone!” He pressed a cold knife to the base of her throat.
“Come out or I’ll slit her throat!
Think you can make it to her in time to heal her?”

Abby threw her vision out to Kyle, found him waiting behind a shed with Jake. A rifle was positioned in his hands, aiming out over the land at David.

“Stay away Kyle,” she whispered. “He won’t hurt me. He needs me.”

David scoffed with bitterness. “You think I’m bluffing?” He pressed the knife further into the skin of her neck and a line of blood appeared under it. “I’ve got friends waiting in the windows of this house with shotguns loaded and ready. If you take a shot at me or try to use your Movers to take me out, they will kill you the moment you step out of the shadows.” He yanked her head back hard making her whimper. “And your woman will already be dead.”

Abby heard Kyle’s voice and relayed his message. “He wants to know what you want.”

“Her life for yours!” David yelled. “Those are my terms.”

She listened again as Kyle spoke. “Tell him I’m coming out.”

“No,” she whispered.

David removed his hand from the knife, using his ability to keep it against her throat, and stepped to the porch railing. “What did your boyfriend say?”

“He… he says you should kill me then.”

“What are you doing Abby?” Kyle yelled into her head. “Tell him I’m coming out.”

“No,” she whispered again. Tears formed at her lashes. “You can’t.”

“Okay, enough of this,” David said. “I’ll kill you both.” His hand came up, swiped through the air.

Hot metal cut through Abby’s skin, slicing down until blood sprang up around under her chin, slid down onto her chest. She fought to take air, felt her life slipping away as she fell onto the hard floor.

* * *

“
No!” Kyle was running before he saw
th
e blade drop to the floor. “God,
no.”

He slowed as he approached the yard in front of the porch, his hands raised high. “David! I’m here. I’m alone and unarmed.”

Kyle’s eyes flew to Abby. She was laying on her side, blood pooling around her cheek. Her eyes gaped wide as she struggled to breathe. Memories flashed through his mind of the last time he watched her die.

“You’re late Windstone,” David said. “Why is he still breathing? Someone shoot him please.”

“Wait! Let me heal her first. Please. Let me heal her and then you can kill me if that’s what you really want.”

David smiled, obviously enjoying the pain he was causing. “Sure. Why not? I didn’t want to kill her anyway. Not really. She could be so much fun to have around.”

Kyle’s lips came up in a snarl as he slowly approached Abby. Rage gathered in his gut, popped into his throat. He wanted to scream, wanted to grasp David’s throat with both hands until he stopped squirming.

“
But don’t try anything stupid.”
David swung a palm up, the bloody blade flying into it with speed. “And if they’re smart, your friends will stay put.”

Kyle’s hands came up to his sides, signaling to the others to stay in the hiding spots. He felt the wrath explode as he looked down at Abby and struggled to stay in control. Her lips were blue, her eyes starting to close as she lost consciousness. He pulled her head up into his lap, felt the icy coldness of her skin.

His hand was steady as he brought it up over her throat. “I’m here now. Hold on Abby.”

He blinked and blue light shone forth from his fingers, poured over her like water from a faucet. Kyle kept his eyes open, watched as the wound healed, sealing together until her blood was no longer flowing.

David quickly pulled Abby up by her arm, yanking her to him. She let out a weak cry, struggled to stay on her feet.

“That’s good now,” David said. “Out into the yard.” He gestured to Kyle with the blade then pressed his lips into Abby’s ear. “I want you to watch him die so that every time I touch you you’ll remember this moment. You’ll remember the look on his face as he took his last breaths.”

Kyle walked out into the yard without hesitation, keeping his arms out to his sides. He turned, faced Abby and saw the look of torment in her eyes, the tears flowing down h
er
cheeks for him.

The corners of David’s mouth turned up in a sick show of humor. “You can shoot him now!”

Abby struggled against David with what little strength she had left. “No. Don’t do this. I’ll stay with you. I’ll tell them all you’re the one who can lead us. You can have anything you want.”

“This is what I want,” David said. He turned his eyes skyward. “Why don’t I hear firing up there?”

Kyle stood in the center of the yard, locked eyes with Abby one last time, then closed them against the barrage of bullets he knew was coming. His eyes flew open again when he heard an unfamiliar voice.

“No one’s getting shot,” the voice said and a man with a red glow walked onto the porch with a shotgun in his hand. “This is wrong and I won’t have a part in it.”

David tossed Abby against the house, stalked towards the other man. “This guy has killed children, raped women. He tried to kill us all and he’ll try again. He’s a madman who deserves to die.”

The man with the red light shook his head. “The only madman I see here is you and I’m not playing judge and jury today. And the rest of them are with me.”

David projected the knife into the other man’s gut with one deft motion of his hand. “Fine. I’ll do it then.” He reached down, picked up the gun, and let out a scream. When he pulled his hand away from the metal again it was burned through multiple layers, leaving flesh on the barrel of the shotgun.

Kyle moved fast. He was on the porch in seconds and went straight to Abby’s side. He lifted her, pulled her as gently as possible into the house and straight up the stairs. He found three other men in a second story bedroom, met their stares, then moved past them to place Abby on the bed.

“Untie her,” he said, breathless.
“Keep her warm.” He stroked her cheek once. “Please.”

With that he ran down the stairs again. David was in the yard now, holding his burnt hand into his chest and running for safety.

Kyle found the knife that had been dropped on the porch and shifted his light to yellow. The blade floated then sliced through the air, landing straight into the flesh of David’s back.

A howl echoed through the yard, but David didn’t slow down for a second.

“Jim!” Kyle called out. “Stop him!”

Jim appeared then, stepping from behind a row of dense pine trees with the muzzle of his gun aimed at David’s head. “I’ve got him.”

The others came out then, all three of them zeroing their sights on David.

David swiped his good hand making Jim’s gun slip to the side. Jim righted it quickly, pointed it straight between David’s eyes. David tried again, dropping to his knees, groaning with the effort.

“It’s no good David,” Kyle said as he walked up behind him. “Your recruits turned on you, saw you for what you are.”

“Just finish it Windstone,” David said. “I don’t need you rhetoric now.”

“What did you think you were going to accomplish here?
” Alex said from beside Kyle.
“
How did you get so fucked up Dave? Mommy didn’t love you enough?”

David snorted an empty laugh. “I was supposed to be the one. This was my time to be something. I deserved the power you have, the woman. All of it. It should’ve been mine.”

Kyle almost pitied him. Almost. “You could never be worthy of her. Did you think busting her arm and letting her freeze would win her over?”

David raised his head, glared at Kyle. “I wasn’t going to give her a choice and she would’ve loved it.”

“You son of a bitch.” Kyle punched David in the face as hard as he could. He felt the sting in his knuckles, punched him again. “Fucking bastard. I’ll never let you touch her. You’ll never hurt her again.”

With a snap he swiped Alex’s gun and aimed. David leaned back and clenched his eyes shut tight.

“Kyle,” Jim said. “Put the gun down.”

Kyle continued to aim, tightening his jaw with the pure fury that filled him. His finger twitched along the trigger. “He has to die Jim. We’ll never be safe unless he’s gone. Abby will never be safe.”

Jim’s hand was suddenly on Kyle’s shoulder. “Let someone else do it.”

Kyle shook his head. “No, I have to do it. It’s my responsibility.”