Fall (Roam Series, Book Two) (12 page)

The snow
was gone, replaced by arctic cold. The area was deserted; I guessed it was the middle of the night. I gasped, my warm breath billowing in front of me. “What’s the date?”

“December
sixteenth… 1955.” West held me tightly, lowering me to my feet as he examined my face. “You didn’t carry your injuries through,” he said, cupping my face in his palms. “Can you stand? Are you strong enough?”

“I feel fine- just-…,”

I turned at a shout behind me. Violet appeared, sharing the burden of Troy’s limp body with a tall, dark-haired stranger. Troy’s neck hung backward at a hideous angle, lolling on his shoulders as they moved. West took over for Violet, his eyes darting around the dark Cleveland Mall.

“There’s a van,”
the stranger gestured across the fountain to a building. Parked along the curb was an old Volkswagon bus.

“Who is that?” My heart pounded, confusion gripping me. The stranger met my eyes, sighing.

“Cam, it’s me.” He muttered, straining beneath Troy’s weight. His mature voice was an octave lower. “Violet, she’s freezing- give her your jacket- I’ll give her mine in a second once I put him down…,”

Violet’s
eyes threw blades at the broad-shouldered man. I gaped at him.

“You’re grown up,” I
said, in awe. He rolled his eyes.

“So are you.”

“I can bust it open and wire it, but it has to be fast- and silent. I’m going to need to break his neck again- soon. It’s already healing.”

“I’ll help,” Violet spat, tossing her jacket at me. I accepted it gratefully, shrugging it over my shoulders.
She produced the pocket knife she’d used to cut West’s feet free, tossing it to him. “Let’s go.”

We hurried across the crunchy
, frosted grass. The incredible pressure in my pelvis had me falling behind them all, even Logan and West as they shared Troy’s dead weight. “Violet, don’t leave her alone,” West ordered.

“Great.” More eye rolling.

I stopped and held my stomach, shrieking as an actual appendage pushed my tightened skin outward, sliding across the inside of my body and settling on the opposite side.

Violet saw the massive shift in my stomach, stopping dead in her tracks. “Holy shit- it’s like
Alien
in there.”

“You’re thirty-eight weeks,” West propped Troy against the bus, working on the door handle.

“Thirty-eight… I could have this baby any minute?”

“Please don’t do that,” Violet cringed, her eyes fixed on Logan. “You kind of look like… who’s that
hot Scottish actor, with the blue eyes… you know, he was in… shit what was that movie… you know…,”

West, Logan, and I stared at her,
speechless. Logan had his fingers aside Troy’s neck, checking for a pulse.

“Gerard Butler?” He offered.

“Yes! Yes, you look like him.”

“Get in,” West snapped at her, glowering.

He had the bus running in minutes. I realized that the vehicle was old, even for 1955.
Where are we going?
He answered my silent question as he dumped Troy in the back. “It’ll take hours to get to North Carolina. This tank is almost empty. I need you to understand that we’re a little desperate here,” he lifted me into the passenger’s seat, leaving the back open for Violet and Logan. I reached for the seatbelt, quickly realizing the vehicle had none. “I have to do some things that are… wrong,” he gripped me to him, and I curled into his hug, trembling with the combination of temperature and fear.

“I understand,” I whispered.

“Look away,” he hushed against my ear. I watched him move into the back with Troy, realizing he was about to snap his neck. Slapping my hands over my ears, I squeezed my eyes closed as quickly as I could.

We were on the road
before I opened my eyes again. Questions burst into my mind, one by one, and I tried to hold them back until we were safely out of Cleveland. The city downtown appeared abandoned; even in the middle of the night in 2012, someone would be out for one reason or another.

Several cars were parked along the street like the bus was, and it took a while before I re
alized that they were parked at residences. We pulled onto Euclid Avenue, and I gasped at the chain of stores and restaurants. Windows were dark, but the elaborate holiday displays inside beckoned customers without needing illumination. Higbees, May Company, and the Halle Store, though closed, stood out in the darkness. Public square was lit brilliantly with fat Christmas bulbs, wreaths, trees, and garland.

“
I don’t even recognize this place,” I said, my hands resting on my too-tight sweater dress. “I…,”

My eyes caught the mirror just outside the window. “Oh my God! I’m… I forgot I’m different,” I ran my fingers over the creamy, white skin in the reflection
, marveling at the dark contrast of blonde hair and black eyebrows and lashes. My eyes, still green, framed a more rounded face, my chin not as long and now more petite. My nose perched between my cheeks like a button, rosy from the air outside. “I’m… cute,” I realized, raising my eyebrows. I tried an angry expression, and then pouted my lips. “How old am I?”

“Twenty-one.” West reached for my hand. “And yes, you’re cute.” He
replied with an amused smirk.

“Gerard Butler, like
300?
Or Gerard Butler, like
Phantom of the Opera?
” Logan’s unfamiliar voice sounded from behind me, and I turned to him and Violet in the back seat.

“I don’t know. Take off your shirt and sing something.” Violet ordered, delivering an abusive kick to Troy’s stomach with her booted foot.

I shuddered.
North Carolina? Back to the cottage?
I spread my hands over my rounded belly.
Where we wait…

“We’re going to wait for the baby,” I realized out loud,
panic settling in the pit of my stomach. “Where is my baby?
The one from 2012?
How much time is passing there? What happened to my body there? When we go back will I be all beat up again? Violet is
immortal
? How long have you
known
that, Logan? I
can’t
have a baby yet! I’m not ready-…,”

“Whoa,” West shook his head. “I knew the questions were coming, but not all at once.”

“Where’s
my
baby?” I demanded. “This isn’t my baby!”

“This is our baby, Roam. That’s what matters.”

I considered him, taking a steadying breath. “What is my name?”

“Roam Eva Camden.”

I gave him a look. “In 1955?”

He offered a sideways glance. “Anastasia. I called you Annie.”

“How much time passed while you were in 1977? I need to calculate the relationship between time passed here and time passed in 2012-…,”

“One year.”

“One year to three months?” My mind jumped to the intense movement that was beginning again in my stomach.  “I- I can’t have a baby, yet, I’m not ready!”

“My ears are bleeding. I didn’t think it was possible for you to shriek that high.”

“Logan!”

“Can we address the topic of me being
immortal
, please?” Violet shifted forward, kneeling between West and me.

West turned to her. I watched an emotion I’d never seen pass over his face, and tried to discern it. “I will talk to you about that later- privately.”

She raised an eyebrow. “You told Logan so he would
kill
me? To gain Troy’s trust?”

“I told Logan so he would know
that you were… ultimately… safe.” He looked in the rearview mirror, his voice lowering to a growl. “
Not
to kill you.”

“But it worked. Otherwise, I’d be in body bag, and so would Roam.”
Logan said, defensive.

“Is
our baby… immortal?”

My question sent the van into utter silence. After a long pause, West turned to me. “I thi
nk so. Once she’s born.”

“How could you know that I was immortal… unless,” Violet lowered her eyes, focusing on the dashboard.

Unless she died.
I wanted to comfort her, to answer her questions, but West was already turning to her.

“I will talk to you,” he said gently.

“So, we get to this cottage you own by the beach, we tie this asshole up in some chains, slice his arm off, and wait for Roam to deliver the baby. Is that the plan?”

Logan’s- or the stranger’s- voice cut through the emo
tional silence in the van.

Violet tousled her curls, narrowing her eyes. “Won’t it grow back? The arm?”

“I can’t get an epidural,” I thought out-loud, frantically holding my stomach. “I need to know more about the history of medicine- specifically births in the fifties- I need a book-…,”

“Calm down,” West’s authoritative tone
eased my nerves. His eyes constantly lowered to the gas gauge. “Logan- yes, that’s the best I’ve got right now. Violet- yes, it will, but it’ll take time- how much, I don’t know. Roam,” he spread his fingers over my stomach lovingly. “I’ll be with you through it all. I promise.”

I warmed, instantly wanting to curl into his arms.
“Everything will be… okay?”

The baby moved beneath his touch, and he smiled broadly, the first genuine smile I’d seen on his face since he returned.

“
It will be.
”

I slept on and off for the next eight hours, waking only when the baby pushed against my bladder. I couldn’t go into public restrooms covered in blood without attracting attention, so I did what I could along the road in the darkness, concealed by Violet’s coat.

By
late afternoon, we were in Richmond, Virginia. With no I-77, the trip was taking longer than we’d expected. West and Logan worked together to “acquire” the funding for our gas and food. At one point, I watched from the van as Logan bumped into an elderly man outside of a gas station, falling all over himself to apologize. As Logan brushed the man’s jacket off, I watched him carefully remove his wallet. He chatted with the man for another three or four minutes before returning to the van parked at the pump.

“Where did you learn that?” I demanded as he moved into the driver’s seat. West and I moved to the back to rest, though I doubted I’d sleep at all with Troy’s dead body in
the back of the van, under a blanket.

“
I’ve seen enough movies. After we get you out of that bloody dress, that belly will be our biggest asset.” He chuckled at his pun, and I punched his shoulder.

“Ha ha- you’re a comedian, even in 1955.”

“I’m working on clothes right now.” West counted the money in the wallet Logan had pilfered, plus that of two other wallets from earlier stops in the day. We all began to realize that we needed better facilities. “Roam, I’ll buy you something warm that doesn’t attract attention.”

“I don’t want to slow us down-…,”

“There’s a store… or something,” Violet pointed out the window. “
Miller & Rhoads...
It looks huge. Look, it’s all decorated for Christmas.”

West turned to Logan. “Stay with Roam. Don’t let her out of your sight. Violet, I need your
help finding clothes. It’s early, so hopefully we won’t get too many strange looks.”

“I can blend, Daddy-O.” Violet answered, glancing my way. “What size do you think you are?”

I held my hands upwards in frustration. “I don’t know! Just do your best.”

“Violet, come on.” West turned to me, pulling me against him softly. “I’ll be right back, baby. Just don’t move. If you think
Troy’s moving at all, get out and run.”

“You snapped his neck fifteen minutes ago. He’s out for at least two hours.” Logan rolled his eyes, a thick shadow growing from his sideburns to his chin.

Violet and West hurried to the store. After ten minutes of silence, Logan cleared his throat. “Do you feel alright?”

I shifted uncomfortably. “I’m fine.”
He stared at me from the passenger’s seat, and I backed against the window self-consciously. “What?”

“
It’s just so… It feels good to know you’re alive. That I didn’t…,” he stopped speaking, and I tried to make sense of his words.

I remembered his story about the gas station and the shotgun, understanding.

“Logan,” I glanced nervously at Troy, trying not to get too close to him as I shifted in the seat.

“I hated to let you think I was working with him… when I held you while he slapped you like that, I-…,”

“Logan, please stop. I knew you wouldn’t hurt me.”

He turned to face the windshield, sighing.
“When we get to North Carolina, I’ll help secure Troy… and wait. When the baby is born, if nothing changes, then I’m taking him through another fountain… and you can stay with West. No one knows how the baby will fulfill this prophecy- or when. It could take years.”