Reluctant Hero (The Dunamis Covenant Book 1) (29 page)

When they were exiting the hospital, Tina saw Officer Bob. She hugged him and looked up at him. "Thank you for believing me, Officer Bob."

He smiled and patted her back, no problem, ma'am, you just feel better."

"I will," she promised. Then she waved, and got into her sister's car. Jason was driving and Melanie was sitting in the back seat with her arms around her sister. "Mel, what about my car?"

"We've got an intern already driving it back for us. Don't worry, everything is going to be fine, kiddo," she promised. "And no chauffer jokes from you, mister." She pointed at Jason who raised his hands in surrender, but winked in the rearview mirror at Tina. She acknowledged his attempt to cheer her up, and he returned his eyes to the road.

Tina began taking out her iPad while her sister was watching. "Mel, if I tell you something crazy, do you promise not to think I've lost my mind?"

"Of course not, sweetie, what is it?" She placed her hand on her sister's arm for reassurance.

"It's what really happened to me today. I didn't want to tell the doctor because I didn't want him to think I was crazy."

She could see the concern in Melanie's eyes when she asked, "Tina, what happened?"

"I was in the cave taking pictures, and when it was time to leave I heard all of this noise outside the cave in the big clearing. There were wolves howling, gunfire, people screaming and even explosions. I came to the cave entrance and saw a huge battle going on, hundreds of people and then a gunshot hit a tree like ten feet away from me, so I ran back into the cave and hid for a couple hours. When I finally came back out, it looked like the battle was over, but then a different group of people attacked the survivors. They threw a knife right into the chest of a guy, I think he was a prisoner, then they tried to kill another guy but a girl jumped in front of him and took the knife right in the chest. Then the fighting started again." She didn't want to say more because the story already sounded crazy enough.

Melanie encouraged her to continue. "It's okay, Tina, Jason and I are still listening." The sun was just coming up over the mountains as they drove. "Keep going, Tina, what else happened?"

"The man who was saved by the girl let out a loud cry of grief and then threw almost thirty of the attackers with his mind. I know it sounds crazy, but that's what I saw. Then when the fighting stopped, his hands started glowing and he healed the girl with the knife in her chest. Then, one of them spotted me watching and two of them turned into eagles and captured me." She started crying and continued. "I thought they were going to kill me, but the one who healed the girl, he said his name was Thomas. He said they were the good guys and that I had nothing to fear. He sent me down the mountain with two guys on dirt bikes. One of them was a cute college boy from Texas and they took me to my car. Then I woke up when Officer Bob tapped on the window." She saw the look in her sister's eyes and began to sob. "I knew it! I knew you'd think I was crazy."

"No, Tina, no, I don't think you're crazy. Maybe your mind was playing tricks on you, but you're not crazy."

"I know what I saw, Mel. I don't even want to believe it myself."

"We can talk about it more, later. You must be very tired."

"I slept for thirteen hours, Mel, I'll manage!" She was so upset; she almost forgot she had a little video footage. Her face brightened when she picked up her iPad. "I almost forget. I managed to get a little on video before my battery ran out." She turned it on and Melanie's eyes widened.

"What is it, Mel," Jason asked from the front seat.

"She definitely saw something, Jason, and it's intense. Let's swing by and take a look at the clearing, it's on the way."

"Won't your mom be expecting us?"

"We'll tell her we hit traffic. If half of what Tina is saying is true, something big went down up there and we need to get on it while it's still fresh. If we wait and come back, it may give whoever these people are enough time to cover their tracks."

Jason pulled off the highway and parked at the foot of the trail Tina had hiked. She was happy they were checking it out. They exited the car and began to look around. "Look, dirt bike tracks," He pointed out. "Looks like they're coming down the hill, too. So far, so good, kiddo." He winked at her.

When they reached the clearing, all they could see was hundreds of freshly cut trees. "It's illegal to cut these trees down. This is all within the last couple days. Mel, whatever happened here was covered up, and covered up well." He walked a little further and pulled out his gun. "I've got blood," he called out.

Melanie instinctively pulled Tina behind her and drew her weapon. "I've got blood over here, too. And more on the west side."

"I've found a couple bullets. I can still smell the powder. There were definitely guns fired up here recently. Tina's onto something." Tina almost pumped her fist in spite of the tense situation. Jason had always gone out of his way to encourage her, and hearing him say she was on to something almost felt like vindication, even to her own doubts. She and Mel were now over by the cave entrance. She ran over to the tree that had been hit and pointed it out.

"I've got a bullet in the tree, right where Tina said it would be," she yelled to Jason who came running. She turned to her sister and placed both hands on her shoulders. "I'm so sorry I thought you were seeing things. Between this physical evidence and the video, it's clear that something huge went down here."

"What about the mystical stuff?" She asked with hope rising inside her. Half of that hope was that she wasn't crazy.

"I'm still not sure about all of that, Tina, but I'll keep an open mind. For now, let's get some pictures, bag these shells and call a forensics team up here. Something big went down."

They began heading over to the trail, and they noticed an old man walking towards them. "Hello," he called out in an easy going manner. "Are you guys with the loggers that came through here yesterday?"

"No, we're Agents Barlow and Edison of the FBI. What can you tell us about these loggers?" Jason asked with one hand on his gun. Mel once again pulled Tina behind her.

"Nothing, I came through this morning and saw all of the damage, they're not allowed to cut these trees down, you know. Are you investigating this?"

"Not yet, we're here on an unrelated matter, but we'll have people up here within the hour and they'll figure it out, Mister."

"Jones, Obadiah Jones." He thrust his hand out in a friendly manner and Jason shook it.

"Well, Mister Jones, is there a number we can reach you at, if we have any further questions?"

"Nope, but I'm always hanging around up here. I'm sure I'll bump into some of your people."

"I'm sure you will. Have a nice day." Melanie replied in a dry tone. They turned to leave, but Jason had his eye on him. Tina took a picture of the man and she was pretty sure he hadn't noticed. When they got back to the car, she emailed the picture to Melanie and Jason.

"Good thinking, kiddo, we'll make an FBI agent out of you yet." Jason called out while he was saving the picture on his phone, then he started the car.

"I already told you, I want to be a forensic anthropologist and work alongside the FBI like—"

"
Bones
, we know. You do realize that it doesn't happen the way it does on television, right Tina?" Mel chided.

"Leave her alone; let the kid have her dreams. The real world will crush them soon enough so that we don't have to."

"Nice, Jason," Melanie looked annoyed, but Tina started laughing. "All right, Tina, let's go over a few things. First, I am going to need your iPad for a while. Second, the forensic team will be at the site in under an hour, if anything is hinky, we'll blame Obadiah, and last, but most important, I believe you saw a lot. I even believe you saw some things we might consider paranormal, but you can't tell anyone else about it, do you understand? We can't even broach that angle until we have proof or the director will have our badges and send us on a permanent vacation. This is very important. And especially, you can't tell mom. She can't handle this right now."

"I understand. Last thing I want is to be the freak of the week, or alien abduction girl, or whatever else they might call me. That's why I only wanted to tell you, because you have to love me and Jason's already weird."

"Hey!"

"Come on now partner, you know she's right." Mel and Tina fist bumped while Jason feigned outrage and continued to drive. The road was empty at this hour and they were making good time.

"We'll give mom the same story you gave the doctor, it was very believable." She looked at her sister with compassion and asked, "Was it at all true?"

"Not exactly, Mel, I just didn't want to tell you in front of the doctor. I do miss dad like crazy, and sometimes I cry, but I don't think I'm stressed about it."

"It's okay, Sis. I do too. And, I understand why you didn't want to tell the doctor. We'd still be there. It was a smart move. I hate lying to mom, but right now she won't be able to handle what you went through up there."

"I agree. I'm not sure I can handle it."

Mel hugged her sister again and added, "Well, you can always talk to me or Jason about it. And we can talk about dad whenever you want."

"Thanks, Mel," she closed her eyes and drifted back off to sleep.

*****

Thomas woke up in the hospital. His side was bandaged, his arm was in a cast, although he didn't remember breaking it, and he had stitches in his leg and behind his ear, heading down towards his neck. He looked around at the sterile environment and caught sight of a nurse fussing over a patient in a bed across the room. He heard a lot of grumbling and thought he recognized the voice. His suspicions were confirmed when John walked in and said, "Take it easy, Pete, she's just doing her job. Laura will be here soon and you can complain to her."

"Easy for you to say, you still have both of your legs." He said it in a joking way, but Thomas could tell there was some regret there. "Tell that boy of yours I owe him a beer for saving my skin."

"He was happy to do it, Pete, but he's a Fitzpatrick, he'll always take a free beer." Then John looked over at Thomas. "Finally awake, huh? Abby will be glad to hear it."

Thomas beamed at the news that Abby was indeed awake. "Is she okay, can I talk to her?"

"She's still in the ICU, but she woke up a few minutes ago. I was on my way in to tell your grumpy uncle the good news when his grumbling sidetracked me."

"Nice, John, way to have some compassion."

"Hey, I took a bullet up there, too. It's not like I escaped scot free." Then he added in a somber voice, "I am sorry, Pete, the doctor's did all they could, Bartholomew's sword just cut too deep. They could have sewed it back on, but it would have never worked." He looked back over at Pete and added with a note of compassion, "We have the best people available on it. You'll have the best prosthetic in the world, my friend."

"I don't doubt it, John, thank you." He grimaced and tried to roll over.

"You, Thomas, saved my daughter's life. Grams was impressed with what you did, and that's no easy task. In an unrelated matter, you are now her all-time favorite person which is something else you should be proud of."

"When can I see her?"

"Hopefully tomorrow. You'll be cooped up here about a week, you lost a lot of blood and that light show you put on nearly killed you. You saved my little girl, but she still needed more surgery when she was admitted. Your healing was more of a temporary patch because the damage was extensive. She'll be cooped up about two weeks. She won't be happy about that, but we've already moved the wedding to her scheduled release date because she's ready to explode and I don't think any of us would survive that." The conversation was easy going, but Thomas could see the deep look of appreciation in his eyes over the fact that he still had a daughter. "Is there anyone else you would like to invite besides your aunt and uncle?"

"I would love to have Trevor and Kendra there."

"Already done, we consider them part of the family now."

"I'd also like to have Tor, Jan and Gunter there. That's about it.

"They'll be there. Tor and Jan are part of the extended family, and I'll call Gunter in a few minutes."

"Sounds good to me, John."

"So, when you went into that trance thing to heal Abby, you were mumbling in Greek again, what's that all about? Do you know what were you saying?"

"I have no idea, John, probably something to the effect of 'don't screw up and kill your fiancée.'" He looked up and added, "Seriously, I have no idea what I was saying. As far as I know, I don't know Greek or any other language besides English and Spanish."

"One of these days, we're gonna have to figure it out."

"Not until after the honeymoon, John."

Pete started laughing, "Abby's not the only one who can't wait any longer for this day to arrive."

"No, apparently she's not," John replied.

"Well, Thomas and Pete have decided to join us among the conscious." Grams said after she buzzed into the room and checked his wounds. She was very efficient, no motion was wasted. "So, Thomas, how are you feeling?"

"I've got a headache, and a dull ache in my side. Other than that, just really weak."

"All right, I'll keep my eye on that headache. They tell me you did that thing with your hands again to save Abby. I'm very thankful for that, but I don't know how many more times you can do that before you don't wake up again. Do you understand?"

"Yes, Grams, I promise it will just be for life or death emergencies."

"Not even for those, Thomas. Don't do it again, weren't you listening? It could kill you."

"I'll do my best."

"You better, because Abby has waited too long, and can't lose you. Do you understand?" She moved on to check Pete without waiting for an answer. Seconds later, she was out the door.

"She has a lot of wounded patients to look at. Thanks to Devlin, we wound up in the very battle we tried to avoid. We lost almost four hundred men and women and have another two hundred seventeen injured. We own this hospital, and most of the staff are Ethereals, so we're safe to recover here. Just don't mention anything Ethereal related to someone you don't know. I have to go check up on my daughter, just press the button if you need anything."

"Will do, John. Tell Abby I can't wait to see those breathtaking green eyes again."

*****

Abby had just woken up again when her father came back in. It was obvious by the snoring coming from the chair to her left that Connor had not left her side. Inga was fussing over the position of her blankets, no doubt trying to make her as comfy as possible. "Daddy, how's TJ?" She asked, eyes wide with hope.

"He's fine, Little Tiger. He's looking forward to both of you being well enough to get married."

"He's not the only one," her brother said from the chair next to her bed.

"Very funny, Connor. We'll be out of your hair soon enough," Abby replied.

"Leave her be, Connor, she's been through enough," Inga added as she sat in her husband's lap.

"It's going be a great celebration, Abby, everyone will be there." John said. He looked over his only daughter, and he was so thankful she made it through.

"Thanks, Dad."

"Thomas says hello and that he can't wait to see those breathtaking green eyes again."

Abby's face lit up at that comment. "And I can't wait to see him."

"He never says those things to me." Connor joked.

"He better not," Inga replied, and then smacked his arm.

"Very funny, Connor, you're just lucky I can't get up yet." Abby tried to readjust her position, but couldn't find a comfortable one.

"Stop squirming, Abby, you'll open your wounds back up." Grams was by her side, checking her vitals. "And don't ever scare me like that again. Let someone else take the knife next time, Thomas might not wake up if he heals someone like that again."

"Yes, Grams." Abby dutifully replied. She knew that to do anything else would incur her grandmother's wrath. "How are Kendra and Sarah doing?" she asked, knowing it was Grams new favorite topic.

She sat down on the edge of Abby's bed and answered. "They're doing fine. They're very relieved that Trevor made it through with just a few scrapes and bruises. They're back on Staten Island helping Liam hold down the fort until everyone gets back. I swear that little Sarah is getting closer to walking every single day. It won't be long now."

"That's great, Grams." She loved how excited her grandmother got while talking about the newest little girl in the lives of the Fitzpatrick family. Her good mood turned to worry when she saw the serious look on her grandpa's face when he entered the room.

"We have a problem, John. Gunter and Tor are waiting outside."