Slayde, Book 2 (Chaos Time Serial) (10 page)

“Where the hell you been!” he slurred, forcing himself to a sit up position. His black hair was matted and poked up all over the place. Several days’ worth of black and silver stubble peppered his jaw, and his sun darkened skin looked flushed and tallow.

It was pathetic.

“Out,” Eric growled, walking to the kitchen and kicking several empty beer cans out of his way.

A large hand grabbed his arm with a strength that was startling, whirled him around and almost made him trip. “You bastard, I told you to stay home and mow the lawn.”

Eric shrugged him off. “There’s nothing but rocks back there, I couldn’t even if I wanted to.” He turned, again trying to get to the kitchen, but he was shoved from behind into the rickety kitchen table which slid out from under his weight.

“You’re a good for nothing,” Matt said and then Eric heard something that made his blood run cold. The sound of a belt sliding out from Matt’s pants. “Yer momma was nothing but a whore. You’re not even my git! You with your red hair, you think I don’t know that slut cheated on me?”

Eric turned. Matt was breathing heavy, madness glittered behind the heavy folds of his eyes. The black leather belt was raised high above his head and Eric only had time to raise his arm up, when the first blow landed. Followed by many more.

He kicked and punched out, but it seemed his old man didn’t feel any of it. He sucked in his breath when the leather bit into his cheek and ripped it open. Wet heat oozed down. He wiped it with the back of his hand. Each slap felt like fire blazing across his skin, he grunted, trying to shove his dad off with everything in him.

“Daddy no!” Danielle screamed, still gripping her doll tight.

“You,” Matt staggered around, finger pointed unerringly at her middle, “come ‘ere you nasty little b—”

Eric saw red. His insides felt like they were heating up and a powerful surge of energy danced through his blood like lightening. He hooked his ankle around Matt’s, knocking him flat to the ground, and then with one sharp punch to the side of his head, laid him out cold. Matt moaned, but didn’t move.

Eric closed his eyes for a second, wiping his nose, leaving a trail of red on the back of his hand. His chest heaved as he gasped for air, his knee still pressed into his old man’s back. “Danny, it’s okay. It’s over now. Go back to your room.”

“But, Eric.” Her nervous gaze jerked to Matt and then back to him. “You’re bleeding all over the place. Let me fix you.”

She was being so brave, not crying, but her body shook and her already pale skin was as white as a sheet.

“I’ll be fine.” Eric tried to convince her with a grin, but couldn’t help wincing when he felt his already split lip split further. He nodded. “Go, Danny. He’s out, hopefully for the rest of the night.”

A soft snore punctuated his words.

“Go wash up, and then get your homework done. We still got school tomorrow.” She shook her head and then dashed back to her room.

Eric finally stood, his body screamed out in protest. He needed a hot shower.

An hour later, Danny was asleep, and he was just finishing a difficult algebra equation when he heard shuffling footsteps and heated mutterings.

His heart kicked into hyper drive when he heard what sounded like a click of a hammer. Eric jumped off his bed, flung his door open and for a second he couldn’t breathe as he witnessed Matt holding a gun and pointing it into Danny’s room.

“Daddy!” Danielle’s sharp scream was the impetus he needed to shove out of his door and tackle his father to the ground. The gun went off, the bullet ripped a hole through the wall.

“Danny!” Eric yelled, heart trapped in his throat. Had he been too late? Was she dead?

“I’m okay, Eric,” Danielle sobbed, “I’m okay.”

A killing haze blanketed Eric’s mind. Matt would never do this to them again.

“I’ll kill you both,” Matt muttered and started hitting Eric with the butt of the gun.

“You’ll never hurt us again.” Eric’s body swelled with warmth. He didn’t give it a lot of thought at first as he wrestled his father around, trying desperately to yank the gun out of his hand. But then the warmth became a burning heat.

“Eric, what’s happening to you?” Danielle’s voice was high pitched and frantic.

He glanced down at his body and saw he was glowing. All of him. A deep molten red. His eyes felt like they were on fire and his insides like they were burning him alive. He screamed and then there were more screams and he heard Matt and he heard Danny but he couldn’t stop it...

“Can’t stop. Couldn’t stop,” Slayde mumbled, his body began to burn.

Soft gentle hands grabbed his. “I’m here, Slayde. I’m here.”

The voice. The touch. The smell of flowers. He sighed and stopped struggling.

“Don’t ever leave me,” he moaned, desperate for the voice to understand, to stay.

“Never, Slayde.” Cool fingers brushed his sweaty forehead. He sighed.

“Never.”

Chapter 9: Secrets and Truths

“How much longer, do you think?” Hunter asked Arianna a day later. Already Slayde looked a million times better, and he even had his hand back. The skin was smooth and hairless, there were no nails, but Arianna assured that even that would come back in a few more days.

She glanced at him over her shoulder, the skin under her eyes looked bruised. She was exhausted, but rarely left Slayde’s side, except when Sable was around.

“One more day,” she said, voice scratchy and he clenched his fists, forcing himself not to go up to her and grab her. “He should be ready to travel tomorrow. Already he wakes and eats light meals. He is doing very well.”

“And you?” Hunter couldn’t stop himself from asking.

She brushed a lank of hair out of her eyes and shook her head. “Fine.”

He walked over to her. Her eyes were downcast and her fingers were playing idly on Slayde’s arm. “How are you really?”

For a second he thought she’d answer, then her spine went rigid and ice settled over her demeanor. “Like I said, I’m fine.” She didn’t look at him, even as she turned, bumping into his shoulder and headed out.

He stood there for a second, reviewing what he’d said, hadn’t said. Something was wrong with her. And it went deeper than her parent’s death. He’d met her after their death’s last time too. Last time he’d known her, Synn had been calm, composed, maybe even a little shy. But not rude, not angry and seething. She was hiding something, and he desperately wanted to figure out what was wrong with her, but maybe it was better this way.

“You know,” Sable said, snagging his attention. He glanced at her leaning casually where he’d been a second ago against the door. She was bundled in layers upon layers of furs and blankets. Her phoenix was having a difficult time being exposed to the cold for such an extended period. But she wasn’t complaining. He kept jumping to the market and
borrowing
whatever he could find to keep her warm, but the fact was they needed to leave here soon. She looked pallid, no doubt partly due to her constant vigil at Slayde’s side.

“This is not healthy what you two are doing, or not doing,” she continued.

She was looking at him through eyes far older and wiser than the youthful face belied.

He licked his teeth and forked numb fingers through his disheveled hair. His toes were like chunks of ice. He wiggled them through the leather boots he wore. “I don’t know what you want me to do about it, Sable. She won’t talk.” He shrugged. Trying to pretend this wasn’t eating him up both day and night. Making it difficult for him to think about anything other than helping her, while simultaneously thankful she was so cold and distant.

He closed his eyes, heart clenching at the hated memories that were always too close to the surface and made it difficult to remember why he was here. Why they were all here. It wasn’t to fall in love, it wasn’t to build a life, it was to destroy an evil so great no one and nothing was safe from it.

She sighed and he watched her glide toward Slayde, grabbing his hand and gently rubbing circles with her thumb against his open palm. Slayde took a deep breath and turned his face to her without opening his eyes, as if sensing her nearness.

“I’ve been thinking about stuff, Hunter,” she began slowly. “Things that I didn’t have time to think about before. But now, all I do is sit and watch him and think.” She sighed.

Hunter didn’t move.

Did she know?

“Things like what?”

She shrugged. “Silly stuff, maybe.”

He frowned, wondering where this was headed. What she was thinking. The phoenix could tap into memories. Was she remembering?

As if she heard his thought, she said, “I think I know things. From our time before, but I’m not sure.”

His shoulders slumped. He wasn’t sure he was ready to talk about this.

He dragged the folding chair leaning against the wall over to him so he could sit. “What do you know?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” She smiled and released Slayde’s hand. She walked over to the wall and sat against it. “When you showed me your world, that was like centuries in the future, right?”

He nodded, beginning to suspect she didn’t know his secret after all.

“You say you fought with a different me. Errol,” she said the name like a question.

“Yes.”

She glanced at Slayde and pointed at him. “But he wasn’t from that time. He was only ten years from my future, and Arianna doesn’t seem from the future either. They’re not immortal?”

He grinned with profound relief. “True. When we started this thing, it was just you and me,” he said it with a chuckle.

“Why are you looking at me like that? Was I that much of a pain in the ass?”

He snorted. “The biggest.”

“Whatever.”

“No, you were pretty bad ass. You were awesome,” he said remembering Errol as he’d first seen her. He’d found her in a bar, a gaggle of men surrounding her. Her throaty laughter and dark black hair had instantly drawn him to her.

“So how’d you find them?” She jerked her chin toward Slayde.

“You were an amazing fighter, but I knew you and I weren’t enough to take on Dragden. So we searched for others to join our group. We couldn’t find anyone in our time.” He shrugged. “We jumped.”

“And it didn’t bother her?” she asked with a mischievous twinkle.

“Oh yeah, that hasn’t changed. You saw Slayde, told me he was it.” Stupid, but thinking about that, when Errol had picked Slayde over him, still made him twinge with a moment’s regret.

“What was he doing?” she asked, unable to contain the excitement on her face.

“Um. Let’s see.” He glanced up, pretending to try and remember, truth was he’d never forget his first encounter. “He was in the middle of four guys. His body glowed the deep red of fire. I think that’s what attracted to you.”

“Fire.”

He nodded.

She smiled.

“They were calling him a thief, telling him he was going to pay them back one way or another.”

“Oh jeez,” she rolled her eyes, “yup, that sounds like him.”

He snorted. “He fought them all. Killed them without a moment’s hesitation.”

She shivered. But it didn’t seem to be with fear, more a shiver of keen desire. It was the same reaction Errol had had. Hunter shook his head.

“I knew if he could do that, he could probably be an asset.”

She nodded, her thoughts her own, but her eyes glittered as they stared at Slayde. After a second she turned back to him. “And Arianna? Was she this screwed up before?”

He licked his lips, sick with the memory. “She was…” he paused, “she was pretty perfect. We needed a healer and she was it.”

“Did her parents die then too?”

He shifted and tapped his foot, starting to feel like they were getting into uncomfortable territory. “Her parents died. But I didn’t find her right after that. She’d been rescued by a mystic who helped her heal.”

“Wait.” She held up her hand. “Why didn’t we go find her then? She’s pretty screwed up right now, Hunter.”

“I know,” he said softly, “but when we got her before she was happy and didn’t want to leave. I had to stay with her awhile.”

“Ah.” It was like a light bulb went off. “You mean you fell in love?”

He clenched his jaw and didn’t answer.

“Well,” she nodded, “now I understand, but you do know she still needs help, right?”

Hunter looked over his shoulder, at the empty doorway.

“I’ve been around enough depressed people. I know it when I see it.”

She was looking up at the tin roof ceiling. A harsh wind howled, rattling the beams and she shuddered as stray flakes of snow slipped in through a sliver in the roof.

He thought maybe the conversation was over, but then she asked the question he’d dreaded from the first.

“So who are you really, Hunter Gray?”

“What?” he asked sharply.

Her face was innocent, her words kind but sharp as a blade. “I see things. I see things maybe other’s don’t.” She narrowed her eyes. “You and me, we’re very similar.”

He clenched his jaw.

“You’re really strong. Like way stronger than all of us. I can’t even figure what in the world you’re doing with us to begin with. You can time jump. You can scramble people’s minds. You can beat him. You don’t need us.”

His laugh was bitter and dripped with loathing. “God, I wish that was true. I’m a liability. Trust me.”

“I do.”

“What?” he asked confused.

“I do trust you,” she searched his face, “I do. I just wish you would trust us. What makes someone, who on the outside looks so unbeatable, be a liability?”

He scrubbed his face, jaw popping.

She shrugged after several moments of thick silence. “You don’t have to tell me. Not if you’re not ready. I guess... I guess I just wanted you to know that if you wanted to talk, I’m here.”

“What do you know, Sable? What are you remembering?”