The Centerpoint Trilogy (12 page)

That was when something hit him like a brick. He was reached out to again by the same voice that was so loud, so booming, that instinct made him want to cover his ears. It was obviously a woman's voice, sultry and smoky, but oh so very loud.

"Ethan," it said, sounding much more solid than any other wispy, projected voice that he had heard before. "Ethan, sweetie... You really need to hurry. Time is running out for the pretty little babies."

He tried to call back, but felt like his tongue had been ripped out.

"Ethan," it said, repeating his name with a tinkling laughter. "The lake will be made, as it was demanded and the girls will be sacrificed to the water. The Alturi shall arrive.”

Ethan found he could not reply verbally so he screamed. He screamed with his mind, he screamed with his heart and he screamed with his body and soul.

Chapter Six

              Alicia tried to take a breath and calm herself down, but she couldn't help think about what Ethan had said. It reminded her that someone was out there to get her daughter. Someone had stolen Rhiannon from her. If she lost her daughter, she was going to kill herself. There was no way that she would live in a world that didn't have Rhiannon in it. She had spent eight years of her life giving everything she had, her whole entire life, to that perfect girl. It was them against a world that didn't want them. It was their world.

She turned her frustration onto the mysterious Wayne. Elliott Wayne bothered her for a number of reasons. He was way too enthusiastic about the case that involved her missing child and he had so many secrets. She could practically see the secrets revolving in his eyes. There was too much to him and she could not afford to trust a man with that many secrets. "Tell me what you know about this lake," she told him, not asking, but demanding. She had not gotten through life by asking for things. She had made her way through the maze of her life by demanding the things that she needed and deserved. That was how she survived.

"Well, the Celestial Centerpoint has a large mythos involving a great lake," Wayne began.

"What does that mean?"

"Well," Wayne murmured, looking at her like he was a little scared of her. Good, Alicia thought. He should be scared of her. She needed him to be scared of her. He was dealing with a mother bear whose cub was currently missing. He needed to know just how dangerous she was. Everyone needed to know just what she was capable of doing when her daughter was involved. "The mythology states that the Great Lake is where magic convenes. It’s where the spirits of the Alturi, an alien race that chose the centerpoint, will come back to them. It is a lake that was made out of the combined forces of the Celestial Centerpoint and the water is, in a way, their holy water. The lake was where the great spirits of magic are said to merge and the Alturi come back…” He trailed off, shifting. There was so much discomfort in him.

"Okay, that's a lovely story," Alicia said tersely. "But what does it have to do with our daughters?"

"I believe that whoever has your daughters intends to sacrifice them at the great lake," Wayne said, obviously pained by his own words. “I believe that they intend to sacrifice girls that have been cultivated with the Centerpoint’s powers so that the Alturi will come to earth at last.”

Her heart raced and once again she was reminded that she would both kill and die for her daughter. Rhi was everything to her and there was no way that she would let them take her baby. She was going to save her.  There was no question to it.

Alicia wanted to find the monsters who had taken her daughter and tear them limb from limb. Their limbs, however, were not at immediate access to her, but Wayne's were. He was standing in front of her and behaving in a way that in no means inspired her trust. "How do you know all of this?" she asked. "This doesn't seem like shit that they just tell anyone. How do you know so much about this group of whack job psychopaths?"

Wayne froze up and for a moment, he stared at them. She could see some distant pain in his eyes. It lingered so far away from him, back into a corner of his mind.  He did not say anything and she demanded it of him yet again.

"How do you know so much?" Alicia asked.

"They're very powerful," Wayne murmured to her, sadly. The sadness in him was so great that she almost felt sorry for him. She knew that he was involved with them somehow, and she had a gut feeling that a person could not be involved with those psychopaths without being greatly damaged internally in some manner or another. She reached out and touched his arm. He looked at her in surprise. He had not expected her comfort. His eyes widened with the shock that caused.  "They're very powerful and I know exactly what kind of horrors they're capable of. I would kill and die, Alicia, in order to stop them. That's all you need to know right now."

Ethan then gasped sharply. He inhaled the air around him as if he was sucking it in for life. His whole body jerked and he went pale as a ghost. His face became ashen.  She knew that once again Ethan was talking to the entity that was using his powers to haunt him. This time he was using his voice. He was actually screaming with words, something she’d never seen him do when he was using his powers. "Stop that!" he screamed out. "Give us back our kids. They're innocents and have nothing to do with that. You need to give them back to us or you're going to pay for it, I swear. Stop it! Let go! Let go!" He was fighting, fighting for something that Alicia could not see or understand.

He continued babbling for awhile. "You'll pay for this! Stop! Stop!" He screamed out in pain and then whatever had a hold on him evidently let go.  He clutched at his head and his gaze lowered to the ground. It took a full five minutes for it to rise again. When it did rise, Ethan was staring at them, helplessly.

He looked at Alicia and then at Wayne. Anna was at his side, holding him tightly but he seemed not to notice her. Ethan was instead staring right at Wayne for a long time. "There was a beautiful woman in my head," he said softly. "I could actually see her face for a split second. She had the most evil grin that I've ever seen. She looked me straight in the eye when she spoke to me."

"What did she say?" Wayne asked, looking paler than Ethan, if that was at all possible. The same look went into his face and he too looked like marbel, chipping at the edges. He looked like he would fall apart.

"She told me that she was going to kill the kids," he whispered. "She also told me to tell you hello."

That was when Wayne looked like he was absolutely going to faint. He staggered where he stood and Alicia instinctively reached for his arm in order to steady him. He looked at her, but then pulled away, still staggering. He eventually sat down after moments of groping around like a drunk.

"Who is she?" Alicia asked, feeling badly for demanding it of him so quickly, but she had to know. She had to know who this woman was and what her connection to Wayne was. That seemed direly important, yes.

"She's someone I used to know, a long time ago," Wayne said. He leaned into Alicia, as if her presence next to him comforted him. He acted as though he had seen a ghost, had felt a ghost, and yet Ethan was the one whom the apparition had contacted. He was scared to death. Just from touching him she could feel his heartbeat reverberate through her entire body. Wayne was scared to death and she wished that she could offer some kind of comfort.

Carefully, Anna took Ethan over to the sofa in the middle of the room. She sat him down, then laid him down.  He too looked like he was going to be ill. Alicia took Wayne into the living room as well. Once they were all sitting down, all four adults looked at each other with concerned expressions. This was terrifying to them and they were trying to sort it out. How did anyone sort this out, though?

"What are you thinking?" Alicia asked him. Despite the fact that he looked scared half to death, Elliot Wayne looked as though he was deep in thought. "Please, let us in on whatever is rolling through your head, because we really need something to get by on."

He smiled at her words. It was a scared smile, but a smile nonetheless. "I was thinking that those with powers are fallibly human," he said. "Even the strongest members of that blasted cult are human, despite the fact that they think of themselves as part of a new superior race."

“What do you mean?” she asked.

"I know the woman," Wayne told them after another few moments of what looked like deep thought. "I know what she's capable of and I know that her fallibility lies in the fact that she's arrogant. She is so arrogant." He looked so sad, lost and confused that Alicia could not help reach over and rub him lightly on the shoulder. He looked at her and smiled a little bit, just thankful for the comfort that she was offering, no matter how minuscule it was.

He pulled out the map again and all four adults looked at it. "Those with a command over water powers could really create lakes," Wayne said, speaking without anyone else interrupting him. Alicia knew it was because she, Evan and Anna didn't know what to say. He pointed to the large circle on the map and frowned. "This area is essentially an oversize ditch. If I planned on creating a lake in the middle of this city, this is exactly what I would use."

"We have to go there then," Alicia pointed out. She stood up. "This is our kids on the line. We have to go save them, don't we?"

"It's not that easy," Wayne objected.

Chapter Seven

The more that Elliot truly looked at Alicia, the more that he admired her. She was an intense woman, who almost had his head spinning at times, but she made him step back and look at the way that his actions affected people. This was a type of reminder that the detective often needed. For a number of reasons, his social skills were stunted, and at times, Elliot needed someone to beat him over the head with his own stupidity. Alicia was brave, fierce and there was no denying that she would die and kill in order to have her child returned to her. He knew that instantly, the moment that he first met her.

She, and her intensity, transformed Elliot's mission from one that was simply ending and destroying the Celestial Centerpoint into something that was stronger and that held so much more meaning. Alicia, and her heart, made it so that he cared deeply about those little girls. He would have the child returned to her mother if it was the last thing that he did. He had stopped, because of the strong mother in front of him, and thought about the children who were involved. Like he once was, they were victims of the Celestial Centerpoint and it was his duty to save them.

It was not exactly on topic, but Alicia was distracting too. She was just so beautiful. She was honestly one of the most stunning women he'd ever seen in his life, with her soft brown skin and bright gold eyes that almost sparkled in the sunlight. Yes, Elliot was aware that this wasn't the best time to  be thinking about the woman's beauty, but there was just no denying that she was. There was no way that he could deny that. She was a beautiful woman and she affected him in a rather deep way. She got to his heart. This woman, this Alicia, was special.

"You're going to help us save our kids, aren't you?" she asked, turning to look at him.

Elliot decided on a simple response. He responded by  gently touching her arm. He'd never been a particularly emotional or reassuring person, but now here he was trying. He stroked his hand down the length of her arm in an attempt to comfort and assure her that yes, he was on their side and yes, he would bring back those little girls unharmed. She deserved the best reassurance that a man like him could give.  "I will do whatever it takes to help you get your kids back," he promised her softly, also making the promise to himself..

"Why are you saying we shouldn't go after them, then?" she demanded. Her voice was so firm, so strong.

Elliot truly struggled to explain. Nobody who did not know his ex-lover would truly understand. Nobody who did not understand the extent of horror caused by the Celestial Centerpoint would truly understand. "The woman that I believe is targeting you," he started to explain, "is ruthless. She could hurt you. She's been training her whole life for this and you are not as strong as she is in that way, even though in matters of the heart, Alicia, you are ten times as strong. I can tell.”

"I'm stronger than anyone, especially when my Rhiannon is involved," Alicia argued, looking at him with those big, glowing orbs. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears, but this woman was not going to cry, not in this situation.

He tried another angle with her. "How much control over your powers do you have?" he asked. "I heard from Ethan's little brother that you have a hold over fire. Is that true? How much can you control it? How much can you use it as a weapon to defend or to fight?"

"I can control my powers," she told him, holding up her hands in defiance. Her eyes blazed and he swore he saw the fire inside of her, just as clearly as if she’d used her powers then and there. It was inside of her soul, this fire.  "I swear to you. I can control them. I've been learning how to control them for years, since I first discovered they existed. I can make them come at my will."

He could tell, just by looking into her eyes, that she wasn't being entirely honest. She had a control, of course. She had to have control after having the gifts for her whole life, but they were wild, unrestrained powers and she didn't know enough about them. Her eyes shifted and he knew that she knew just how limited her control was.