Transcending the Legacy (28 page)

Ezr
a’s eyes narrow on me and widen. “She could be alive out there!”

I remember the talons’ grasp on her before it crashed into the woods.
She couldn’t have survived both the pressure of the carcass falling on her and the vice grip the talons had on her shoulder. I shake my head. “She isn’t alive. You know as well as I she couldn’t have survived.”

Ezra’s eyes have glazed over; he is thinking about her. Monica’s death has made him think about Ana’s. Ezra’s head shakes and his voice trembles, “I have to know for sure. We can’t leave her.”

I see Lathan look at Ira, then move toward Ezra and me.

He walks past
us both into the woods and calls, “I will sweep the woods for her.”

In a blur
, he disappears into the woods. All of a sudden Ezra side steps me and runs into the woods behind him. Nate and Xander are both on me instantly, grabbing both of my arms keeping me from going after him.

“No!
He can’t go out there alone!”

Nate yells, “He isn’t alone! Lathan is with him!”

I continue to struggle, yanking my arms from them.

Having escaped their clutch
es, Xander growls, “Jesca!”

All of a sudden,
a gun discharges in the same direction Lathan and Ezra just disappeared, sending my heart into my throat. The gun discharges again and I sprint through the woods only focused on getting to my father with the vague sound of Nate and the other guardians yelling for me to stop.

I hear her choking and it spurs my urgency to get to her quicker before it is too late; before the Dweller has a chance to take her. I come up on the enormous creature first, it’s body splayed out on its side and its heavy head caved in on itself. Monica coughs, then whimpers breathily, drawing my attention to the lower half of the hawk-like creature. She is laying against the underside of the bird, still clutched by the ridged talons of the beast. I rush to her and prop her head up in my lap, instantly relieving the blockage of blood that has gathered and pooled in her throat.

Her eyes widen when she sees that it is me. Her lips begin to tremble and a small moan resonates from her lips as her eyes narrow concentrating on getting out
what she is trying to say.

I look
closer to her and see that the lower half of her legs is under the body of the carcass. Pinching my eyes shut tightly, I feel a cold sweat wash over me at as I see the image of Ana struggling for breath as her life fell away that fateful night in the cabin. I wipe my dampened face with the sleeve of my arm and whisper, “I’m sorry. I’m sorry I couldn’t save you.”

In the midst of my breaking point,
I hear her voice, my Ana. “You can’t save her. It is alright, Ezra. You need to let her go. You know what you need to do.”

A cold clammy hand clamps down on my arm, drawing me
from the sound of Ana’s voice. Urgently, I look down at Monica and see that her eyes have gone pure black, pure darkness consuming her. I pull away from her just as her upper body begins to convulse and writhe from the Dweller now controlling her body. The only thing keeping her from reaching me is the fact that her legs are trapped underneath the beast.

As Monica writhes and
convulses the Dweller that is consuming her tries to take hold of me one again. I groan loudly as I pull my gun from the holster, knowing what I need to do and resenting these final moments with her. I take a deep breath, aim it at Monica’s head, and choke out, “I’m sorry,” before pulling the trigger twice.

I release my breath before I open my eyes.

I should have kept them closed.

Paralyzed, the gun drops from my hand as I
divert my eyes. My only comfort at the moment is knowing that I can hear Ana again. In my darkest moment, I can hear her again and she remains the light.

I spot Lathan first. He is standing behind Ezra who is standing in front of the beasts carcass with a body at his feet, Monica. I don’t look too long, just long enough to see the blood. When my stomach summersaults, I look away. The rest of the guardians and Rephaim run up on me, Shiva heeling at my side. Again, I worry about Tessa seeing this scene. I’m scanning the guardians, looking for her when my eyes stop on her small form wrapped in Xander’s arms. He is holding her to his chest with her face tucked over his shoulder, looking away from the scene. Xander is swaying side to side, hushing her, and smoothing her hair. I am so thankful he has scooped her up and shielded her.

I move closer to Lathan and
I notice Ezra’s hands are splayed open, empty, no gun. I drop my eyes to search the ground around him and just as a strike of lightning illuminates the earth, I see the black metal shine of his gun next to the Monica’s body; I make my sight of her brief again as a wave of heat stirs my repulsion. Now at Lathan’s side, I look up at him hoping he will tell me what happened.

He
speaks carefully as his eyes stay pinned to Ezra. “The Dweller had her. He had to shoot her. As soon as it left her body, I killed it.” Lathan looks at me sideways with his piercing amber eyes and whispers, “Go to him. He needs you.”

I peer from Lathan to Ezra, still as a statue except for the hair on his head, feathering from the wind. Thunder rumbles above us as I move toward Ezra slowly, cautiously. Shiva walks beside me, not wanting to let me go alone. I avoid looking down at Monica’s
body as I come to stand next to Ezra. I feel the uncomfortableness of death being a mere footstep away from where I stand. I look up at Ezra timidly, testing the waters before I say anything to him. If this were any other situation, I would yell at him that he is a stupid, stupid man for running off like that, mocking his reaction to me running out to help the Rephaim and Errol earlier. As I look at his eyes, I see something in them that tells me to not unleash on him. He is hurting, tormented from what he had to do. He doesn’t need me doing that to him. He needs me to be here for him, bring him back from the dark place he has gone.

“Hey.”

The pause is long and I wonder if my greeting has fallen on deaf ears. As I keep my eyes on him, checking his reaction, I watch as his head leans back and his eyes look into the sky through the parted canopy of trees. He breathes in deeply, then releases it with no other sign of emotion; cold and empty. I expect to look up into the opening made by the hawk next to us and see hovering, stalking hawklike Dwellers. Instead, it is just the sky with darkened clouds backlit by underlying lightning.

I slowly bend down to retrie
ve the gun, keeping my eyes level with the beast’s body in front of me, not daring to look down at Monica again. On the first attempt, I touch the metal gun and wrap my hand around it. Keeping my eyes on Ezra’s delirious gaze into the sky, I rise slowly and click the safety back into place before I push the gun into the holster on the other side of my hip.

I slowly move my hand toward Ezra’s arm. I’m a little worried about touching him, wondering if it will crumble his catatonic state, sending him bolting from me.
To hell with it, he is my father and I can’t let him break like this right here in front of me. I touch his shoulder and will myself to speak Even though I am scared to death.

Clearing my throat, I say,
“You needed to do it, Ezra. She was already gone. If she were in your place…”

Ezra’s voice croaks, “…
I would want her to do the same.”

Looking at Ezra’s strong profile lit by the repetitive flashes of lightning, he drops his gaze from the heavens and turns his gaze to me,
blinks quickly. He raises his hand across his body to rest it on top of mine. Together we turn around and walk toward the guardians and Rephaim.

I watch his hardened face nod at Lathan as we pass
him.

Ezra’s worn voice surfaces, “
The Dwellers can get to us just as easily in the bush as they can in the open.” His eyebrows raise as we walk up to Sebastian, ready to address him. “If there are animals in the bush, the Dwellers will use them, like it did with these mutated bird beasts. We have to be cautious, but swift as we make our way to the mounds.”

He is talking so quickly, mechanically. I whisper his name to try and slow him down, “Ezra.”

Ignoring my voice, he looks behind the guardians at Ira. Ira is no longer carrying Errol. He must have left him back in the meadow. Ezra continues his programmed rant, “You are just as vulnerable as we are. The playing field is being leveled as they continue to use our world against us.”

Ezra looks at Nate and Xander, then me. “This is when the hybrid
Dweller will close in on us. It is setting traps. First taking Briggs, then the mutated birds striking down Errol, and taking Monica.” Ezra pauses and I look at him. He looks down in shame. “I fell into one of the traps by going after Monica.”

He looks at all of the guardians and
Rephaim. “It could have gotten any of you killed if the hybrid Dweller had decided to show itself and attack.” Ezra looks back at me. “Just like beyond the veil, it is looking for our weaknesses. It took my weakness and used it against me.”

I feel my throat tighten with emotion for him as I think of the demons he has been fighting for years having witnessed my mother die and now Monica.

Ezra places his hands on his hips, and shakes his head before looking at all of us. “Don’t let it use your weaknesses. Do what you have to do to survive.”

Ira and Cale lead us back in the direction of the meadow with Seth and Lathan pulling up the back. Daniel crouches to the ground and pulls a flashlight from his pocket, shining it on the dirt beneath him.

He waves his hand for us to move closer as he draws in the dirt with his finger.
“Look, we are here, about fifty yards into this wooded area. It is dense, but it only stretches a width of about five hundred feet.”

Sebastian adds in, “It will protect us up to Natchi Trail, then it is open field. Well, was
an open field a year ago. Don’t know what it looks like now.”

Sebastian looks at Daniel for reference.
He nods. “Tall grass, but no cover, so yes, open all the way to the Etowah Archeological Museum. That is our halfway point. The rest of the way is the same; low grass land with no cover.”

The bad news makes me restless as I think of a way to get to the mounds from the cover we have here.
I concentrate on the ground just beyond Daniel, willing myself to be there. I feel the lightening within and everything around Daniel’s crouching body blurs. My sight of him blurs slightly, then comes back into focus sharply as I stand behind him looking at the back of his crouched body. My soundlessness does not make up for his awareness of my presence as he jumps to his feet and backs away from me.

Before he can reprimand me for obviously scaring him I say, “We can jump.”

Sebastian steps toward me, “Each time we use our abilities, it weakens us. It drained you out there defending Ira and Errol.”

Ira interjects, “It drains us as well. It will put us at greater risk if we get caught in a swarm of
Dwellers or these mutated creatures.”
Nick jumps in, “It doesn’t drain us for long though. I already have my strength back from using my Pyrokenesis.”

I remember Ezra’s telling me that he hoped the drain wouldn’t come at a time that I
needed it most. I look at Nick. “He is right, if the drain happens while we are under attack, we will die.”

Ezra speaks up, “Jumping is the most draining ability and the most dangerous.”

Jake adds, “You don’t always know where you will land. Might land in a nest of Dwellers.”

Siobhan adds, “Or a flock of
Dweller birds.”

Ira’s hardened stare rests on Daniel, waiting for him to call the shots as to what we must do next.
Daniel stammers as he explains, “Travel south in the woods as long as we can and be prepared for anything to strike at us. Use your abilities when you need to and stay together.”

I add, “Don’t leave anyone behind.”

Ira looks at me, his narrow eyes soften for a moment, before he draws his dagger and strides into the heavy brush. Cale draws his dagger and follows tightly behind Ira. All of us fall in quickly behind them with Lathan and Seth trailing us closely.