Eternal Hope (The Hope Series) (29 page)

Tess and Grayson showed up after dark. Daniel had organized rooms for both of them in the hotel, and as soon as they arrived Grayson deposited Tess at the apartment before muttering something about needing to get clean, and then disappeared without another word. Apparently being trapped on an airplane for a few hours was akin to licking the sluice feeds in a mortuary, and he thought he might die if he didn’t go and sterilize his whole body. This left Tess standing despondently by the pool table, looking as though her eyes were on the verge of swelling shut. That only happened when she’d been crying.

Daniel made himself scarce, and Farley dragged her friend over to the sofa. It was three tissues later before Tess managed to get a coherent word out.

“I’m so worried, Farls.
He’s been stressed out but he wouldn’t do this. He wouldn’t just go without telling me where or why.”

Farley tensed over what she was about to say. Tess was probably going to lose the plot. “I hate to say it but we have no real idea of what’s been going on with him. He…he hit you, didn’t he?”

Tess’ body stilled. Her eyes flickered uneasily to Farley and swept over her. “Kayden told you what happened?”

“Yes. What I’m wondering is why
you
didn’t tell me. I’m your best friend. You know you can tell me anything.”

“He didn’t hit me, Farley. I told Kay and now I’m telling you. He would never do that. He would never hurt me. It happened by accident.”

“I want to believe you, I do. It’s just… he’s not used to all that power. It’s bound to have affected him. But if you say it was an accident then-”

“You don’t remember, do you?”

Farley shifted in her seat and frowned. “Remember what?”

Tess bit her lip and stared down at the tissue in her hands. “It doesn’t matter. I just don’t want people thinking Oliver is a bad person. He’s not. He’s just…under a lot of pressure.” Her random comment started alarm bells in Farley’s head, but from the distinct closed-off expression on Tess’ face she wasn’t going to talk about it. She started to cry again.

Farley handed her the whole box of tissues and tucked her legs underneath her. Tess took the box and cradled it to her chest, her eyes unfocused. “We have to find him. He needs us.”

“We will. We’re just going to have to keep sending Kayden out to look for him. It’s going to be fine. He probably just needs to blow off some steam and then we’ll find him and bring him here.”

“What if something’s happened to him? We shouldn’t have left Montana.”

The thought had occurred to Farley, but Kayden said he was on it. “If Oliver goes back to the cabin, Kayden will know and go get him.”

“But why can’t he find him
now
? Shouldn’t he be able to locate him or something?” Her mass of crazy hair bobbed as she cried, each new sob louder and more mournful than the one before.

“We don’t really know what’s going on. Trust me, okay. Kayden will find him.” She had no basis on which to believe that so entirely, but she really did. “And when we’re all gathered here, we’ll be able to figure out a way to help him through this. We’ll find a way to relieve some of the pressure he’s under.”

Tess screwed up her tissue and added it to the sodden pile beside her. She sniffed. “You’re right, I guess. There has to be a way to fix someone like him. You said that Aldan guy was okay, right? He wasn’t evil.”

Yes, Aldan had been okay. If you didn’t count the fact that he’d been in a coma, that is. Farley reassured her some more and found a blanket to cover her over with. She let her curl up with her head resting on her lap, and as she spiraled into a tear-fuelled sleep of exhaustion, Tess whispered, “I know I’m a complete bitch sometimes, Farls. I’m not the easiest person to be around. But if I have one redeeming feature, it’s that I’ll do whatever I can to protect the people I love. I’ll do anything it takes.”

Farley sighed and tucked the blanket tighter around Tess’ body. “I know, Chica. I love you for it. And you have more than one redeeming feature. There’s your caustic wit. And you have this way of shutting people down that comes in handy.”

Tess sniffed, giving her a heavy look. “I mean it. You know you can tell me anything too, right?”

“Of course.” Like she could ever keep anything from Tess. She’d know something was up in a heartbeat.

Her face was determined when she said, “I’m not gifted with super powers, but I’m not useless, you know. You can count on me if you need me. I’m not like Anna. I refuse to be a liability.”

Her words galvanized the feelings that had been plaguing Farley for weeks. “You and me both. Tomorrow, I’ll talk to Daniel. It’s time we both learned to fight.”

*****

In LA, the best place to beat someone up is at the beach. Or at least it was at four in the morning, when the majority of the population was respectfully asleep. When Farley had thought about this moment- training with Daniel- she’d always pictured it going down in a gym. There’d been the Rocky music in the background, and the whole thing had flashed by in a montage where she went from hopeless to hero in forty-five seconds. The reality of it was a little different.

“Are you sure there’s no Matrix way to do this?” Tess complained, accepting the bandages that Daniel held out to her. He raised his eyebrows.

“I’m afraid you’re going to have to explain that reference.”

“Y’know, when that dude got plugged into a machine and suddenly he knew Kung Fu?”

“Think I missed that one. Look, if you’re serious about this, then great. But there’s no easy way out. You’ll have to learn the hard way, bruises, broken bones and all.”

Tess rounded on him, dropping the bandages like they were attacking her. “
Broken bones?!
”

“Well, okay, we’ll do our best to avoid broken bones. Bruises are pretty much guaranteed, however. And you’re going to be really bad for a really long time. It takes years to become proficient in a martial arts system.”

“Great, so what’s the point?”

Farley stooped and collected Tess’ bandages, shoving them back into her hand. “The point is that we’ll at least know a few tricks to defend ourselves. The Immundus won’t expect that.” She looked at Daniel. “And you could be a little more positive. We’re not going to rush out thinking we’re superhuman after an hour-long instruction class, but maybe we won’t be quite as frightened. That can’t hurt.”

There was something up with him this morning; he was on edge and nervy. He kept on looking out towards the ocean. The whole setting was doing something trippy to Farley, too. It was all too similar to her run-in with Simeon: the water; the sand; the way the moon’s reflection shimmered on top of the undulating waves. She kept expecting to see the figure of him sitting up the beach, soulfully watching them as they prepared to find a way to kill him. The emotions that thought provoked were scary and unwelcome, and not entirely what she should be feeling. Simeon was crazy. He was trying to find a way to hijack her body, and she was going to ready herself to fight him for it. The End.

Except her meetings with him hadn’t given the impression he was spending his time plotting her downfall. He just seemed to be looking for his wife.

Farley wound her own bandages around her knuckles and across her wrists, putting everything else out of her head. She couldn’t feel sorry for Simeon. There was no room for pity when it came to survival, especially when the enemy was obviously much smarter than you and playing weird head games.

Daniel slipped his shoes off and gestured for them to do the same. At night, the sand felt different underfoot, cool and slightly damp. During the day, it felt like you were walking across hot coals strategically placed on the surface of the sun. With a punching pad in hand, Daniel came and stood a few feet in front of Farley.

“Okay, we’ll start off with some warm ups. Do twenty alternate left and right punches, then let Tess do the same.”

Farley grinned. This was something she could do with her eyes closed and hitting something would feel pretty liberating right now. She knocked the twenty hits out, and Daniel remained focused on her as she laid into the pad, giving away nothing. His expression was flat and guarded. When she was done, she stepped aside and Tess came up. Tess hadn’t had any training at all, and it was hardly surprising that Daniel needed to show her the very basics, from not tucking her thumb into her fist when she punched to keeping her eye trained on the area she wanted to connect with.

Warm up lasted just shy of an hour, and Daniel spent the majority of that time with Tess. She needed to catch up so he could teach them at the same speed, but it was maddeningly slow progress. By the time the sky started lightening into a royal blue out to the east, Tess had nailed the correct punching technique but not much else.

Before long, early morning runners stole away the solitude of the beach, giving them openly perturbed looks as they spotted the cache of weapons Daniel had brought with him. Not that he’d needed them. He’d barely needed the pad. He kicked sand over the knives and nightsticks and nudged his Converse on top to mark the spot.

“I think we’re done for the day. We should get inside before there’s any chance the Immundus spot us.”

Tess stretched her fingers with a grimace. “I’m totally okay with that. My hands are broken. Do I have time to run across the road and grab a coffee before we leave?” She gestured to the familiar fuzzy green and white logo of a coffee house fifty feet across the boulevard. Daniel nodded.

“Sure. Be quick.”

She bolted before he could change his mind. Farley smirked; was there ever going to be a situation where Tess didn’t have an overwhelming need for coffee? Probably not. The sea breeze fluttered across her face, blowing strands of hair into her face. A couple of runners, laughing and racing one another in the distance, brought back the image of Simeon and Aria running through the surf. The moment had been simple, yet they’d looked blissfully happy. Like nothing in the world could change them or affect them in anyway. It was a sad memory. Farley wandered over to the surf, dipping her toe into the water. It was cold but in a soothing way. She held a hand out to Daniel.

“Come get your feet wet.”

A firm look set over him. He thrust his hands into the pockets of his jeans and went rigid. “Ahh… no, I don’t think so.”

“C’mon, it’s really not that cold.”

He shook his head. “We ought to make our way back to the car. It’ll be broad daylight soon.”

Farley laughed and threatened to kick water up at him as another wave surged around her feet. “Anyone would think you were chicken.”

As soon as the words came out, she realized her mistake. It felt like an out of control elevator had plunged its way from the top of her head to crash with sickening force in the pit of her stomach. She reached out to him, already out of the water. Such a stupid, stupid thing to say. Of course he was afraid. He was
terrified
. How could she have forgotten Jacob had had him repeatedly drowned in the ocean? That was why he was so tense on the beach- he was probably freaking out right now.

“Oh, fffff-” She bit back the word. Daniel only just managed to pull his hands out of his pockets before she launched herself at him. He caught her up and staggered back a pace.

“It’s okay. Really, it’s okay.”

“It’s
not
okay. I’m such an idiot.”

Daniel pulled her close and sighed. “It’s no big deal. I’m just not so hot on water.”

“We shouldn’t have come here,” she moaned into his neck.

“Why not?” He leaned back and looked down on her. “It’s beautiful. I’ve spent a lot of time in LA. I can handle the beach. Just not the ocean.”

“I feel ridiculously dumb. I’m so sorry.”

“Seriously. It’s fine.” He planted a kiss on the top of her head. Farley scanned the beach for Tess, wondering where the hell she was. It was definitely time to go. She began tugging on her shoes but Daniel pulled her upright.

“Don’t freak out. I can deal with being around water if I have to.”

“Oh, yeah?” Now that she could see the uneasiness in his eyes and the way he held his body, there was no way he was going to convince her he was fine. “When was the last time you were in water?”

“About two hours ago. I shower every day. Sometimes twice.”

Farley pulled a stern face. “I’m serious.”

For a moment it looked like he was going to make a smart comeback, but the laughter fell away and he looked down at his toes again. “The last time? The last time I was in water was in London fifty years ago.”

“I didn’t know you went back to London?”

He gave a slow nod. “Kayden and I used to live there. He was having some problems and I thought leaving America would do him some good. Give him a different perspective on things.”

“Oh.” The slow way in which he had parted with his words was labored, and Farley sensed the memory wasn’t a pleasant one. He glanced at her and inhaled, expanding his chest.

“The last time I was in the water was when I came home and found a letter from Kayden. He’d written it knowing I would find it.” Daniel paused, shrugging his shoulders like he was apologizing for the next words out of his mouth. “A suicide note.”