It was almost a week after we returned from Reno. I’d given up trying to stay awake and stopped worrying about disappearing. I figured that my two trips to Toronto had been to learn about the danger we faced from Damian. Without running into Damian I wouldn’t have known Alina was in trouble.
We’d emptied the other rooms on the top floor of Paul’s house in preparation for turning it into an apartment and I’d been making holes in the walls to find out what sort of nightmare waited inside them. All those rooms were warm. Paul’s was the only cold one so I figured it was just a blocked duct or something easy to sort out. We’d been in the warehouse going through his old tools to see what was up to the job and what we would still need.
My back was to Paul as he put the warehouse keys in his pocket when something got my attention from up the hill. It was a man, dark like a shadow. The closest smudge I’d seen a week before. My breath froze in my throat as I turned.
I forced out Paul’s name as a bright red light filled my eye. He reacted and several things happened far too quickly for me to have caused any of them. He stepped between me and the source of the light. I only knew that because it went out. Then he grabbed the front of my coat with both hands and sprung toward the corner of the warehouse.
He managed a few steps before something hit him hard in the back. He stumbled and pushed me behind the building but he was off balance. His head hit the corner of the warehouse with a loud crack and he dropped nowhere near making it around the corner with me. Luckily he sent me spinning so I was rolling when I hit the ground avoiding a hard landing. I scurried to the side of the warehouse as soon as I knew which way was up and knelt down low on the ground.
Paul was on his stomach his head turned towards me. Blood ran from a gash on his temple and dripped into the snow. The red light shone on his shoulders. It kept reaching trying to touch his head but the ground was uneven so it kept jumping from his shoulder to the snow a few feet beyond. The light tried a few more times then went off.
I turned my head toward the man on the hill. Even with the building in between us I could easily pick up his location. He was waiting for me to do something stupid like run to Paul. Paul’s eyes blinked a couple of times and looked around for me.
“Keep still,” I told him. “He can’t get a shot at your head the way you’re laying.”
Paul looked at me. He still wasn’t all there. The only blood dripped from his face; none was visible around the hole in his jacket. I watched his eyes staring back at me then I froze.
I didn’t see Paul any more. I saw Catherine’s lover lying in a pool of blood. His dead glassy eyes watched me the same way. I knew with infallible certainty as my husband lay immobile on the ground before me in a sniper’s sights that I’d watched the same man die two hundred years before. I knew what Ray had meant by Paul’s long memory from that pain laced conversation I overheard weeks before. I knew if I did nothing it would happen again.
Paul tried to move so I put all the anger I could muster into my voice. He had to follow my orders while he was in no shape to give them.
“Stay down Paul,” I barked at him. “The man on the hill has his gun on you.”
The smudge watched.
Waiting.
I pulled out my gun.
“Can’t hit … too far,” Paul gasped.
“Noisemaker.”
I pointed my gun to the sky and squeezed off two rounds then two more. The look of panic faded from Paul’s face as he understood. The smudge sat up, getting my attention. He was going to move. Now that I’d alerted the others he was going to have to move fast. I didn’t have much time.
Once he was on his feet I jumped to Paul’s side, my gun tracking his position.
“Anna, get back,” he tried to snap at me.
“No … I can see him. Now that everyone knows there’s a problem he’s finding a new position to get a better shot.”
My right hand undid the snap on Paul’s belt and took his knife. “What are you doing … wait.”
“No time,” I said. “He’s going to kill you and six others including me before the rest get him … somehow I know.”
Paul was trying to shake his head.
With all the authority I could pull off I growled at him. “You stay down or so help me I’ll knock you out so you do. I’ve watched you die once already. It’s not happening again.” The man on the hill looked back at us, almost in position. He’d moved so fast; he thought he could get me first then Paul. I put my gun down and gently brushed the blood from his forehead then I hurried back behind the building.
“Don’t move,” I growled again. I could feel the anger in my face. “I’ll be back in a minute then we’ll talk about keeping things from Anna.”
“No, no, no …” Paul struggled. It didn’t matter. I would sort out the man on the hill before he could get a round off. I moved Paul’s knife to my left hand. The man on the hill was prone, putting his rifle to his shoulder.
“I love you,” I told Paul and disappeared.
I re-appeared already bringing Paul’s knife down in both hands, my feet planted on either side of the man on the hill. I didn’t hesitate. Just as his finger went to the trigger the knife sunk deep into the fold between his shoulder and his neck. The force I put behind it pushed him down into the snow sending the muzzle up. The rifle discharged; the bullet exploding into a nearby tree.
Anger clouded my vision and a void of indifference filled me. I’d saved my family. Paul, me, and our baby. I had no other choice. None at all.
The man took his hands off his rifle and tried to grab the knife. That didn’t worry me. I used all my weight to drive it in and there was no way he was getting it out. I put my boot on his head and held him down; I didn’t really want to see his face.
The man was bleeding out quickly; he’d stopped pushing up on my foot so I took his sidearm. I popped out the clip and made sure the chamber was clear before I put both in my pocket. Then I took his rifle and unloaded it as well. He’d stopped moving so I put my hand on his back. He exhaled once and was still. I relaxed and stepped off him.
I quickly patted him down and found another handgun under his arm so I pushed his coat up on that side to get it. A river of blood flooded out into the snow. While I waited for it to stop I looked back at Paul. He’d seen me and I noticed someone peeking around from the warehouse.
“It’s okay,” I called down. “There was just one.”
Nobody moved. I carefully fished the other hand gun out of the shoulder holster avoiding the blood and yelled again while I was unloading it.
“I got him, you can come out now.”
When it was in my other pocket I moved to the man’s head and put my foot on it. It took some wiggling but I finally got Paul’s knife out. There were two men with Paul and two on their way to me so I slung the man’s rifle over my shoulder and with the still dripping knife in my hand I walked past them down the hill.
Ross and the other man with Paul had him sitting by the time I got there. I knelt beside him. There was pain on his face now that the glassy look was gone. I put the rifle down on the ground beside him.
“He shot you with this,” I told him.
Then I pulled out the man’s hand guns and the clips. I put my own gun back in its holster under my arm.
“What were you thinking? I told you to stay back.” Paul demanded.
Ross quickly checked all three weapons.
“They’re secure,” he said.
“He was half a second from sending a round through your head,” I whispered in his ear. Ross and the other man were busy briefing the others who’d arrived. “This was the small lead group I told you about before we left for Reno. He would have killed seven including our baby before he was stopped. If you think I was out of line by defending us when you were incapacitated we can discuss that privately.”
He set his jaw and looked at me. “No, I guess not.”
“I don’t know where the others are. I didn’t see him until he had his sight on me. I’ll keep looking.”
Paul looked down at his bloody knife. “You used my knife?”
“I put my gun down to wipe the blood from your face … I must have left it,” I shrugged and looked away as I started to get angry again. I backed up and leaned against the wall to let Ray work. Paul’s knife was still in my hand and I crossed my arms and pulled my knees up as far as I could to hide it close across my stomach. I wasn’t giving it up.
Most of the men had been sent out to check the compound by the time the men who went up the hill after me came back to report to Paul. “She just about took his head off. We tracked him back about a hundred yards over the hill to his camp. Looks like he was ready to dig in there for a long time.”
I didn’t remember it like that. From the corner of my eye I saw Paul look over at me. I didn’t look back. Instead I got up and walked up the hill to the house then right toward the south end of the compound. They could look for me for a while; the danger was past for now. I needed to try and find the others who were coming for us.
The south road was deserted so I went forty or so feet into the trees and sat down against a sturdy trunk. I pictured myself moving away to the south, searching as I went. I searched for a while until I got sleepy and dozed off. I woke cold … and certain of where the last two men could be stopped.
Paul waited in the open front door for me when I got back to the house. I stopped for a moment to look at him. Then I smiled, tears of relief started to run down my face. Relief showed on his face too and something else. Anger at me maybe, for what I couldn’t guess.
“Hi,” I said as I got close to him.
“Where were you?” he asked as he put his arms around me. I held him with one arm. One still held the knife. I rested my head on him and breathed him in. He was warm and alive.
“I fell asleep just south of the compound. That jump drained me. I was looking for the second group.”
“Upstairs,” he told me.
Paul stiffly sat on the bed. A line of fresh stitches disappeared up into his hairline. I left the door open a bit so I could hear if anyone came up and stood with my arms crossed guarding him.
“You went after them by yourself?”
“I didn’t,” I told him. “I was trying to see them like when I saw them before.”
He frowned. “Can I have my knife back now?”
“Not until the danger is past. It’s not over yet.”
“And you’re going after them?” he demanded, crushing handfuls of bedspread.
“No, I …”
“Haven’t we risked enough for one day?”
I crossed my arms tighter. “You can be as mad at me as you want but that doesn’t change what happened today. He almost got us both.”
“And you know this?” he asked. “How?”
“Yes … and I’m figuring that out.”
We stared at each other for a few seconds.
“How about we talk about you keeping things from me?” I asked.
“What things? I told you everything you asked about.”
I nodded. “But then you didn’t really …
“The funny thing is I’m not even mad at you for keeping it from me. I was earlier but not now because I wouldn’t have believed it. It was when I saw you on the ground looking up at me half conscious. Barely seeing me. I knew who you were. And who I was. Why our first night together felt like I was reconnecting with an old lover, not finding a new one.
“You felt it then too,” I said quietly. He stared back.
“You don’t have to say anything. You were Catherine’s lover years and years ago. You thought I was dead so you gave up. I watched him kill you.” I took a step closer, my arms relaxed.
“He said you were too late. He was right. I wouldn’t have survived the beating. Now I know what Ray meant when he said our son would get your long memory … will our daughter have that too? You remembered me from that long ago … it just took me a while to figure it out.
“I was Andre too. I didn’t know you then. But I knew Damian,” I could feel my temper start to rise. “He was that asshole Lieutenant chicken shit coward. Hardly ever got his hands dirty. Like now. Sitting back indulging himself with my sister. Sending his men after us in his place. Men like him … men like you. I think I can see them when they come because they remember too.
“How many of your men are like you. Ray for sure, probably a lot of the others … and the man I killed. I have a feeling that I broke whatever tied him to his long memory. He’ll come back, but he won’t remember.”
I moved closer to him. My arms had fallen to my sides. I turned my wrist slowly, impatience tapping the dirty blade on my leg.
“Aren’t you going to say something?” I demanded as I moved my arms away from my body.
It was then Ray got me from behind. Paul’s eyes had stayed on me the whole time never betraying his presence. He held me so I couldn’t move my arms; they stuck out from my sides. His leg between mine leaning me back just enough that I couldn’t leverage my own off balance weight.
“Let go of the knife Anna,” Ray said quietly into my ear.
“No,” I told him. “You’re going to have to take it.”
He shifted his weight just a bit and the nerve in my arm pinched painfully. I sucked air in between my teeth as my arm went numb and the knife started to slip from my fingers. There was no way he was going to come between me and protecting Paul. I disappeared and reappeared at his side for a fraction of a second to hold the handle of his gun then I disappeared with it and reappeared behind him holding it to his back.
I waited for the knife to hit the ground.
“Ray …” I said quietly. “Don’t move until I tell you too.”
Paul’s eyes were wide.
“If you turn to grab it I’ll be on the other side of the room before you even get half way around.” He didn’t know that wasn’t true. Three jumps had completely drained me.
“Anna,” Ray said as he raised his arms. “Please put it down. You’ve been through a lot and you’re not yourself.”
“Are you sure? Is my voice shaking? How about my hands?” I asked him as I held his gun steady.
“Trouble breathing?” I pulled in a deep breath through my nose.
“No,” Ray said.
“So you’re questioning my mental state because I saved seven lives today?”
“You killed a man.”
“No. I saved my husband, myself and my baby and four of the men. I’m thinking very, very clearly. Don’t compromise my ability to do that ever again.”
“Okay Anna,” Ray said going along with me; waiting for me to make a mistake. I watched him closely. Listened for sounds in the hall. I’d taken things up a notch and the next person to walk in wouldn’t be so gentle with me.
“Paul,” I said not taking my eyes off Ray. “You know that frozen pond a couple of hundred yards south of the compound?”
“Yes.”
“Just after twenty-one hundred tonight the last group will arrive there. Two men. Heavily armoured. Heavily armed. They’ll split up and circle the compound, setting up positions for a turkey shoot tomorrow. If you ambush them there the only loss of life will be theirs. You have to take them at the pond. There’s not a lot of time.”
“I’m not leaving the house,” I said. “Three jumps today and I can’t pull off the control I need to be of any use at all. It’s not the distance that tires me so much. It’s the precision and without immediate danger to myself or to Paul wouldn’t go anywhere.
“I’m starting to understand it … getting stronger,” I was having a hard time with my words. I took two steps back and bent my elbow, pointing his gun at the ceiling.
“Take your gun,” I said softly, my voice fading with exhaustion.
He turned slowly and took it. My knees started to go and Ray steadied me. Paul pushed himself up and came to help. They moved me to the bed and got my boots and coat off. I looked down at the dried blood on my hands.
“I’m okay,” I told them after half a minute. I took clean clothes from the dresser and went to the shower. I wasn’t getting in our bed covered in another man’s blood. I washed up as best I could with one arm and came out. Ray was waiting and I heard Paul speaking quickly to someone as he walked away down the hall. His knife was gone from the floor where it had fallen.
“How long will it take for my arm to work again Ray?”
“Not much longer,” he said. “I don’t believe you feel as good as you say you do Anna.”
“Neither better or worse.” I shrugged. “I bet you were behind me for a while. I’m not upset about it. I wouldn’t have let me around him either. I just reacted … I wouldn’t have hurt you. I know you’re protecting him too.”
Ray nodded. “If we thought you were going to hurt him he wouldn’t have gone upstairs alone with you. We just wanted you to put the knife down.”
“He’s getting ready to go to the pond?”
“Yes,” Ray said. “You’re not stopping him.”
“No, I’m not. I can’t distract him now.”
I thought a moment.
“Ray … you need to go too,” I told him as the outcome of the confrontation to come found a place in my mind. “Tell Paul that just because I said none of them will die doesn’t mean nobody will get hurt. Those men … won’t stop, won’t retreat. Don’t drop your guard for a second. They’ll need you before it’s over. Get your stuff and hurry.”
He thought about it.
“Go,” I squeezed his hand. “I’ll be good.”
“I’ll know if you’re not.”
“I’m sure you will.”
I waited upstairs for a few minutes after everything went quiet downstairs. It was half past eight. I was close to sleep and I would do everything I could to stay awake until Paul returned. I got a blanket from the laundry room and made hot chocolate. Snow came down hard outside the dark kitchen window. The drink kept me busy. I didn’t taste it.
Shortly after nine the smudges neared the pond. Pulling my blanket up and around my shoulders I let myself out the front door. Paul had left two guards behind on the porch. I stood for a moment watching the south.
“Mrs. Richards,” the one named Jones said. “The Captain wants you to stay here until he gets back.”
“I am staying here. I thought I might be able to hear something from outside,” then I took a seat next to them. “It’s starting.”
I didn’t think I could hear anything given the distance and heavily falling snow, but the soft pops of gunfire made it to us. One smudge faded right away, flickered a few times and disappeared. The other headed quickly west into the trees then doubled back east unseen. The man could see Paul’s men moving in on where he entered the forest and he kept going east to find a new position behind them. Panic rose in me.
“Jones, can you talk to the Captain?”
“Private channel,” he pointed to his earpiece.
“Tell him the remaining target went east, they’re going in the wrong direction.”
Jones looked at me, yeah right.
“Tell him I said it, he’ll decide what to do with it … you need to hurry. I’m not asking.”
Jones sighed and shook his head. He adjusted the radio on his belt.
“November Whiskey,” a pause. “Romeo reports the remaining target has moved east of your position. Over.”
Romeo? I wondered how long I’d been tagged with that.
“He copied.”
The pops stopped a few seconds later. We waited.
And waited.
There was more gunfire from the south. He’d hit someone … he didn’t know how they’d refocused so quickly on his position. Then a small explosion as the smudge evaporated into the air like a popped balloon.
Then silence. I’d become so used to their weight on me that it was a shock when it lifted.
“It’s over,” I said as Paul’s voice came from the radio.
“Jones, we need medical evac to the south pad and get Spanks down here with a stretcher and all the B positive he can carry.” Both men burst into the house and Spanks was out the door with the stretcher under his arm and a small pack on his back in seconds, running full speed south to the pond. Through the open door I heard Jones give the location for the helicopter.
Eventually I heard over the radio that Ray had the wounded man stable. He’d lost a lot of blood and would need surgery. I pulled my feet up beside me under my blanket, turned sideways in my chair and closed my eyes finally giving in to sleep.