Laura Jo Phillips (34 page)

“Harlan?” she asked in a small voice as he continued to sit there with his face hidden from her.  She saw his shoulders shake, then he scrubbed his face with his hands before standing up.  She looked into his eyes, afraid of what she was going to see there but determined to face it head on.

His eyes were watery and a little red.  Was he crying? she wondered. 

“Angel, I don’t know what to say,” he said, his voice hoarse with emotion. 

“Are you angry?” she asked, unable to tell what he was feeling and unwilling to wait another moment for the answer.

“Angry?” he asked in surprise.  “No Angel, I’m not angry.  I’m so happy I don’t know how to act.”

Ellicia smiled with relief.  “You had me scared there for a minute.”

“I’m sorry, Angel,” he said.  “I just can’t believe how very blessed I am.  First I find you, the love I have looked for my whole life.  And now you tell me we will have children.”

Suddenly that word,
children
, seemed to sink in and his eyes widened once more.  “Wait a second, you did say
children
, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did,” Ellicia replied.  “Plural.”

Harlan laughed as he wrapped his arms around Ellicia, lifted her up and spun around in circles with her in his arms.  He stopped abruptly and set her down, looking at her with concern.

“I’m sorry, Angel, that was thoughtless of me.  Are you all right?  How stupid am I?  Spinning you around like that.  Are you feeling okay?  Do you need to lie down?”

Ellicia laughed at him.  “I’m fine, Harlan,” she assured him.  “Don’t worry so much.”

Harlan blew out a breath of relief.  “How long have you known?”

“Since this morning,” Ellicia replied. 

“So that’s where you disappeared to, huh?”

“Yep,” she replied.  “I didn’t want to say anything until I knew for sure.”

“So is it twins then?” he asked.  “Boys? Girls? Both?”

“Triplets,” Ellicia said.  “And I asked them not to tell me the sex.  I want to be surprised.”

“I bet that lasts about a week,” he said wryly as he hugged her again, more carefully this time. 

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Ellicia asked archly.

“It means your curiosity is going to get the better of you in one week or less,” he said.  “You have many fine qualities, Angel, but patience is not one of them.”

“Speaking of patience, our guests are going to be running out of it pretty soon if we don’t get out there,” she said, unwilling to discuss the matter of her own impatience further.  She thought Harlan was probably right, and that she’d only last about a week before demanding to know if she was carrying sons or daughters.  But at the same time, she really did want to be surprised. 

Harlan bent down and kissed her deeply.  “I love you, Angel,” he said.

“I love you, too,” she replied, gazing into his amber eyes for a long moment.  Then she smiled and turned around, sweeping her hair forward over her shoulder to bare her back.

“Are you excited about the party?” Harlan asked as he took the hint and fastened Ellicia’s dress.

“Yes, but also nervous,” Ellicia replied.  “I’ve never had so many people in my home before.  It seems weird to me.”

“I’m sorry, Angel,” Harlan said.  “We shouldn’t have held it here.”

“There’s no reason for you to apologize,” Ellicia replied as she picked up her brush and began pulling it through her already smooth hair.  “It was my idea to have it here, not yours.  Besides, your place is too small for so many people.”

“True, but we could have held this shindig at a restaurant or any one of a hundred other places besides your home.”

“Don’t worry about this, Harlan,” Ellicia said, setting the brush down.  “I’m fine, really.  It’s only the people I don’t know that make me nervous.”

“What people do you not know?” Harlan asked.  “I thought you just invited people from work.”

“I did.  I’m talking about the catering people and the party planner people,”  Ellicia said.  “I don’t like people invading my space.  Having people I don’t know here makes it harder.  But people do this every day, right?”

“Right,” Harlan replied.  “At least, people have caterers and party planners in their homes every day.  Hopefully,  they don’t have engagement parties every day.”

Ellicia smoothed her dress and turned around, smiling up at him.  He bent to kiss her again, sliding one hand down to rest against her flat stomach. 

“Thank you,” he said. 

Chapter
40

Grace slept a few more hours before waking up about an hour before dawn.  She stirred up the fire again and put on some water to heat before digging in her pack for breakfast.  After eating she fixed herself another cup of tea, wishing more than ever that there had been coffee in that compound.  The first thing she was going to do when she found civilization was drink about a gallon of coffee.  And she didn’t care how much it cost, either.

She sipped her tea and considered her pillowcase of fire fuel, trying to decide whether to leave it behind or not.  There wasn’t really that much left in it, so it wasn’t heavy.  And if she was wrong about the distance, she could very well end up spending another night under the stars.  In the end, she decided to take it.  The thought of camping without a fire was far more scary than walking through the desert alone.

She finished her tea, kicked sand onto her fire and shrugged into her pack.  It was still dark out, but she would use the flashlight to walk by until the sun came up.  She stepped around the boulder again and looked into the west, relieved that the soft glow of electric light still shone in the distance. 

It was too dark to see any landmarks, so she reminded herself to keep an eye on the sunrise, and the spot of light so that when there was enough daylight, she could find something to mark its position.  With that firmly in mind, she turned on the flashlight and started walking. 

***

Hope awoke just before dawn to the sound of Karma thrashing and moaning on the other side of their small, make-shift enclosure.  She reached for her flashlight and flicked it on, shocked at how pale Karma looked.  Her skin was white, with a bright red patch on each cheek.  Hope sat up and added a few sticks of wood to the coals in the fireplace, then crawled over to Karma’s side. 

“Shh, easy Karma,” she whispered in a soothing voice as she placed her hand against the other woman’s forehead.  “Take it easy, relax.”  Hope was appalled at the heat rolling off of Karma.  She reached for one of Karma’s water bottles and wet the square of sheet she had been using as a cloth, then used that to dab Karma’s face tenderly.  The coolness seemed to help, and after a few moments Karma stopped thrashing. 

“There you go,” Hope said, crooning softly as she added more water to the cloth and patted Karma’s face and neck with it.  She was not worried about using the water up now.  Her only worry was getting some medical help for Karma before the fever got any higher.  She didn’t need medical knowledge to know that a high fever could be dangerous. 

“I’m going to get you some help just as soon as I can,” Hope said, making her decision.  “Don’t you worry about it, either.  Everything is going to be just fine.  Grace will contact the Directorate and they’ll come to the compound and get us.”

Hope was talking out loud because she hoped that the sound of a voice, any voice, would help Karma to relax, and also because she found it helped her relax.  She didn’t think that Karma was capable of really understanding anything she said.

“No,” Karma said softly, “please don’t do it, Hope.”

“I have to Karma,” Hope replied, startled that Karma not only understood her, but was aware enough to respond. “You’re burning up with fever and I’m afraid you have an infection.  I can’t just sit here and watch you die.”

“Something bad is going to happen,” Karma said.  “Something really bad.”

“What do you mean?” Hope asked, wondering if the other woman was having delusions.

Karma sighed, a long, hopeless sound that sent chills up Hope’s spine.  “He says it doesn’t matter.  He says it can’t be stopped.  I don’t want to believe him, but he’s right, I know it.”

For a moment she had thought that Karma was fully aware, but she was obviously more delusional than ever.  Hope shook her head and crawled out of the tent.  The sky was just beginning to lighten, so it was going to be a while before sun up.  She stood up and stretched the cramps out of her legs and back, thinking about the dream she’d been having before Karma had awakened her. 

Once again she’d dreamt of the three blond men, only this time there was a small blond woman with them.  She didn’t know who the woman was, but she seemed vaguely familiar.  The sensation that the men were looking for her was stronger than ever, only this time she also felt as though they were closer to her than before.  Very close.

Hope shook her head again.  She could not allow herself to pin any hopes on her strange feelings.  She had to be realistic, and make a decision. 

She had already sifted through both her own fuel bag and Karma’s, setting aside all of the greenest pieces of wood just in case she needed a smoky fire.  She’d also wandered around the camp site and gathered all of the greenest bits of plants she could find.  The problem was that even with all of that, she didn’t think she had enough to keep a fire going for more than a few hours. 

She had to decide when the best time would be to start the fire.  The idea of deliberately drawing the men who had drugged her and taken her from her home made her feel angry and a little sick.  But she didn’t have a choice.  Karma didn’t have a choice.

***

When Ellicia awoke she still felt tired, even though she’d slept for hours.  She dragged herself out of bed and into the tiny bathroom.  She reached into the stall shower and flipped on the taps, wondering for a moment whether or not she’d even fit into it.  She ran her hands over her belly, smiling when a tiny foot kicked against her palm.  

“Not too much longer, baby,” she said softly.  “Just a few more weeks is all.  But right now, we have to get out there and find Hope.”

She pulled off her clothes and stepped into the shower, trying to shake off her lingering sleepiness.  She needed to think clearly today.

A few minutes later, dressed in fresh clothes but with her hair still dripping wet, she left the room and looked for the exit.  She wasn’t really sure where she was going, but she spotted a door at the end of the hall and headed for it.  Just as she reached for the doorknob, Jackson pulled it open and smiled at her.

“Good morning,” he said with a short bow.  “How did you sleep?”

“Okay,” she said as she stepped out into the early morning light.  “I’m still a bit tired, but I’m good.  Are we ready to go?”

“No,” Jackson replied.  “First, you need to eat.  Then we can get in the air.”

“I can eat later, Jackson,” Ellicia objected.  “I think we should go now.”

Jackson paused and turned to face her.  “Ellicia, do you want to get in the air now because you are impatient?  Or is it because you saw something that makes you think we need to fly now?”

Ellicia rolled her eyes.  “Okay, we’ll eat first.”

“That’s what I thought,” Jackson said with a grin.  “Come on.  It won’t take that long.”

***

Garid watched from the back seat as Darck left the military surplus store with a dark brown package and headed for the ground-car.  He had been surprised that such a small town would have a store like that, until Darck told him about the military training base thirty miles to the southwest.  Garid wished he had known that bit of information the day before.  If those women knew about the training base, they could very well be there already. 

He had expressed that thought to Darck over breakfast, but Darck had shrugged it off. 

“There’s no way those women could know about that training base,” he’d proclaimed.  “First of all, none of them are from this part of the country, and second of all, they’re women, remember?”

Garid still couldn’t believe that even Darck was that stupid.  As he watched Darck climb into the car and pass the package to Lenny, he decided that this was definitely it.  When this job was finished, no matter how it panned out, he was done with the Brethren.  He didn’t have enough Brethren blood in him to rise high in the family anyway. 

Once, he had envied those like Darck who had reptilian features, indicating the purity of their blood.  Now, for the first time in his life, he was glad that he looked completely human.  It would make it that much harder for the Brethren to track him down later.  He had just enough cash to buy a ticket off this planet.  Not enough for one of the really exotic destinations, but enough to get to Sheara 3 or Teira.  He’d never been off Earth before.  Had never even considered it.  Now, he couldn’t wait.