Triple Infinity (17 page)

Coughing and wiping her mouth with the b
ack of her arm, her look darted to him, frantic. “I can’t be here, Aiden. I can’t. That this could even exist...” Her head shook as she began pushing his arms off of her. He didn’t let her succeed.

“It helps if you don’t look.”

“Don’t look? God, Aiden, how can you even say that? How can you not? Why didn’t you warn me? What sort of hell is this? That this is even possible...this isn’t what I thought it would be.”

“What did you think we were going to find here, Skye?”

“I don’t know...” Her eyes pleaded to the heavens. “Not this. God. I thought it would be like Mustique. Contained and beautiful and dangerous...not gruesome...not rotting corpses...not innocents...not babies. Who does this?”

“Skye, I know it’s hard, but we don’t have time. You need to come right now.”

“Wait. I can go back. Go back and –”

Her voice dropped off as Aiden’s right hand released her shoulder, grabbed the gun strapped to his hip, and aimed it down the path where Triaten had
disappeared. A man, fumbling to get an automatic rifle in place, had wandered into view. Aiden pulled the trigger without hesitation and the man fell.

Skye watched him hit the ground. She hadn’t seen or heard him appear. “Is he a Malefic?”

Aiden watched the prone form in the dirt, and then shook his head. “No, he’d be up again by now if he was.” He looked back down at her.

“Aiden, I have to change time.”

“No, we need to move right now. We have to find Charlotte first.” Aiden grabbed her arm and pulled her as he started down the path, avoiding bodies. She stumbled a few feet, and then dug her toes into the ground.

“Aiden, I can’t do this. I’m not you. I’m not that strong.”

He stopped and grabbed her shoulders again. “You are and you have to. Skye, this is why you exist, why you have your power. It’s not to save a dog. Or to save one person.”

His arm swung, mot
ioning to the carnage around them. “Your power can save thousands of innocents. These thousands. Tens of thousands at the other camps. You have the power and you will change this. But we have to do it right, we have to walk through this and find Charlotte. If we don’t find her and talk to her, and you push back time, only to go to the wrong spot, the timing may be off, and we might not save any of them. None.”

His voice had escalated to commanding, not allowing Skye
the option to argue. “So you need straighten your spine, find some strength, come with me to find Charlotte, and then turn back time. Are you ready?”

It was the verbal ass-kick Skye needed. Silently, she nodded. Aiden grabbed her hand and they ran in the direction Triaten had left them.

It didn’t take long for the sound of gunfire to tell Skye and Aiden where Triaten was. They quickly pulled up behind him, and a dust cloud from their feet flew up, sitting in the thick air.

Triate
n’s guns were drawn, and he had positioned himself half-behind one of the tin houses. A group of militia, seven or eight, were gathered at the front entrance to a large building. Built of white stuccoed block, it was the tallest structure in the compound. A red cross was painted above the door. Gunfire occasionally burst from the group toward Aiden, Triaten and Skye.

Triaten glanced over his shoulder at them, then nodded at the building. “It’s the hospital, and it’s where the only phone is if I remember correctly. And they’re guarding it.”

“Which means there is something important in there.” Aiden interjected
.
“Could be Doc S or Charlotte.”

Triaten nodded. “Let’s go.”

Skye fell into line behind the shoulders of Aiden and Triaten. All three had guns drawn as they moved in a wall at the group of men. A hailstorm of bullets flew at them, but both Triaten and Aiden picked off the militia one by one, quickly and efficiently, not paying any mind to the bullets that sliced into their Panthenite bodies.

The guarding militia down, Triaten kicked several bodies away from the door, and
the three stepped into the building.

The question
of Doctor Saima’s fate was answered three steps into the building, as her body laid on its back by the door, baby in her arms.

Skye had to swallow hard on the bile that rose again in her throat as they
stepped past the bodies. Noise above them drew the three up the stairs. At the top, the concrete block hallway was empty, but of the rooms branching off the hall, only one door was closed.

Triaten started
down the hall, just as a charging scream preceded a hulking man, sword drawn, charging out from the closest open room. Triaten had his blade up just in time to block the first heavy swing. By the time the clash of swords rang into the air, Aiden had drawn a dagger and thrust it past Triaten’s shoulder, into the heart of the Malefic. The Malefic slid to the ground, sword still above his head.

Triaten shot Aiden an enraged look
as he continued down the hall. “Malefics led this.” It confirmed what the elders had said.

With a nod, Aiden moved past Triaten
and kicked open the closed wooden door in front of them. Three Malefics, swords swinging, rushed at the group. Aiden grabbed the wrist of one as it flew past him, jerking him to a stop, and sunk his dagger into his back.

Triaten handled the next through the door,
and after two swings by the Malefic, he pounced on unsteadiness and kicked him in the chest, sending him to the ground.

Triaten’s blade sliced off his head in one furious motion.

Furious, because the third Malefic had stopped and slunk back into the room. The Malefic’s blade was over the body on the floor — Charlotte. He sneered as he raised the sword, ready to sink it into Charlotte.

The sneer lasted only an instant, for a
dagger flew across the room, impaling the Malefic between the eyes. Both Triaten and Aiden glanced down in surprise at Skye, who had just thrown the blade. The Malefic fell backward, and Aiden was over to him in a blink, sword burying into the Malefic’s chest.

Aiden and Sky
e looked around, watching for more attacks, but it was silent. Triaten was already at Charlotte’s head, his hand on her cheek, trying to open her closed eyes.

“Charlotte. Wake up.” He patted her dirt-crusted cheek. “Wake up.”

“Triaten, her hand,” Skye whispered.

Triaten looked down at
her body. Charlotte’s left hand sat flattened, palm down, over her own heart. Blood soaked the white t-shirt she wore. The blood was clearly thickest above her heart, tapering out in circular fashion from the spot below her hand. On the back of Charlotte’s hand, there was the faintest glow of red emanating from her skin.

“Shi
t, she’s healing herself,” Aiden murmured in awe what all three were thinking.

“Charlotte,” Triaten whispered, his voice desperate
. He slapped her face harder as he pulled her head into his lap, taking care to not jar her hand from her heart. “Charlotte. Wake up.”

Slowly, through the dirt blanketing her face, the whites of Charlotte’s eyes appeared behind
the tiniest cracks in her lashes.

Her mouth opened and air came out, but no sound.

“Charlotte, I’m right here. Open your eyes, Charlotte.”

She closed her mouth and reopened it. This time, sound made it through. “Thomas?”

“No, Char,” Triaten’s voice cracked, “it’s Triaten.”

At his words, Charlotte’s lashes opened and her eyes tried to focus on the face above her. “Tri
— I knew you would come.” She took a shallow breath as her eyes closed again. “Tri, Thomas is here.”

“Thomas is where, Charlotte?”

“He wants me to come. I told him I couldn’t. I couldn’t leave you. But I’m getting so tired.”

“Charlo
tte, open your eyes. Look at me,” Triaten demanded of her.

When he
r eyes re-opened, Triaten pounced. “When did they attack? How long ago? We need to know, Char.”

“I don’t know. I don’t know how long I’ve been here.” She drew a shuddered breath, and a blood-soaked cough was her reward. The red droplets flew out of her mouth,
landing in a trail down her chin, but she kept talking once the cough ceased.

“
I was moving through the bodies, helping the little ones I could find, until they found me crawling. I was so weak from healing. I couldn’t fight. They took me here. And tried to kill me, but couldn’t. And then they knew what I was...and they brought that one...that Malefic to kill me. He nicked my heart with his blade. How long have I been here?” Her eyes slid closed again.

It wasn’t the answer Triaten needed. “
Char, stay with me. How long were they here before the girl called me? Think Charlotte, how long?”

She didn’t open her eyes, but her voice still came out. “Three, maybe four hours. They worked their way in f
rom the fence — we didn’t know it was happening — and when we did, we tried to move some.”

Satisfied with the timeline,
Triaten smoothed the hair at her forehead. “Don’t worry Char, Skye is here and she’s going to set it back. We’ll go back and be ready when they come again.”

Triaten tore his eyes from
Charlotte and commanded Skye. “You need to go back days. We have to have time for the flight and to be ready. Go back to the day you two came back from Mustique.”

Charlotte’s body
jerked and her hand slipped off her heart. It became obvious her mind was no longer clear as she started to mumbled. “Thomas? I know. But I can’t go...No, it’s Tri…Yes, Tri, he’s here. I told you he would come…no…I don’t want to…” She was silent for a moment.

“Char, stay with me.” Triaten
ordered.

“But...no...
please no…I can’t…but…okay. Goodbye? I can’t. Don’t make me. No...I won’t…okay. I’ll come.”

The mumbled conversation behind C
harlotte’s closed eyes terrified Triaten, and in despair, he grabbed her hand and put it back over her heart. But the glow was gone. He leaned down, close to her face, grasping her cheeks.

“Stay with me
, Char. Stay. Here, right here. Skye will fix this. You need to just stay with me.”

Her eyes slit open. “Tri. Promise me.” The words muddled in her labored breath, barely audible.

“Anything Char. Anything.”

“Bring me home…a
fter. My body. Bring me home. Don’t leave me here.”

Tears fell down from Triaten onto her face. “No
, Char, you’re going to be fine. Just hold on. Stay with me. Just a little longer.”

“Promise me. I want to be near you.”

“Char.”

A weak cough sprayed more blood.
“Promise me.”

Triaten’s head dropped, and he put his forehead onto hers.
“I promise.”

Her eyes
slid closed. “Thomas...now?”

Triaten
’s hands moved, and he gripped Charlotte’s body, clutching her limpness into him. He looked up at Skye, yelling. “Skye — god, just do it — she’s dying.”

“I know. I’m trying.” Skye shot back
, and slipped down against a wall onto her heels. Eyes closed, she clasped her hands over her face.

Seconds ticked by.

Charlotte’s breath slowed.

“Do it now, Skye, do it now.”
Triaten’s voice pitched desperation. “She’s going. We don’t know what will happen if she dies. We could lose her. Go back, Skye. Hurry, god dammit.”

Skye didn’t answer, didn’t move.

A gargle of air popped through Charlotte’s mouth. She was taking her last breaths.

“For god’s sake, Skye, just do
it, dammit!” Anguish etched Triaten’s words.

Aiden strode from the
open doorway and slapped Triaten across the head. “She needs it quiet.”

“What the fuck, Aiden? Charlotte’s dying and Skye needs it quiet?”

Aiden crossed his arms, glaring down at Triaten. “Skye can do it, Triaten, just shut the hell up.”

Aiden looked over at the ball Skye had wrapped herself into at the wall. “Do it now, Skye.” It was a demanding whisper. “You
can do it. Just send it back.”

In an instant, Skye was standing in the
study at the ranch, swinging her hand at Triaten. Her arm froze in mid-slap as they looked at each other. It was the day Aiden and she had come back from Mustique, and she was just about to deck Triaten for sleeping with her sister.

Triaten and Skye
stared at each other as the enormity of what Skye had just done sunk in. And once it did sink in, Triaten ran at Skye and wrapped his arms around her, crushing her as he yanked her off the ground.

“You did it. Thank god, Skye.” The relief in his words were
ground shaking. “Thank god. Thank you.”

“Skye.” Aiden opened the
study door and walked in.

Triaten
reluctantly put her down, only to pass the manhandling to Aiden. Aiden grabbed her shoulders and spun her toward him.