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The Tessarae Inn |
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The Son Also Rises CHAPTER 28 “Any last message for Mr. Cameron, Katherine Dawes Mahoney? A dying declaration, maybe?” Katherine glared at him. “No? Doesn’t matter because I’ll tell him you begged like the worthless backstabbing piece of trash that you are. I’ll tell him you wet your pants like a shitty little baby.” “There is a hell. This much I know. I will meet you there and finish this fight. You will not win.” Padgett grinned then aimed the gun. “What they say about you is true. Frank Dawes’ true heir was a beautiful redhead with emerald eyes and a soul of stone. Too bad she didn’t have the right equipment. See you in the next life, bitch.” Katherine dove right just as Padgett fired the gun but he was fast and pivoted almost in step with her. He fired again but suddenly there was someone in front of Katherine, who covered her body with his and the bullets ripped into him and blood spurted forward in a gush. Katherine screamed as he fell backwards and went limp causing her to fall as well. She clutched him closer to her and held onto him but the momentum of his fall pushed them both to the very edge of the cliff. Katherine scrambled desperately to stop their slide. She clutched and clawed at the ground but they kept moving. For a second, they hung suspended half way over the edge. She jerked forward but the movement seemed to break their final hold on the ground. They careened backward as she grabbed at the air then tumbled over the cliff. Screams punctuated the air in the singsong pattern of an echo then there was silence. Padgett turned toward Blair. “Well, that was rather melodramatic but very convenient. Two dirty rotten birds with one stone. In this game, it doesn’t get much better than that.” Blair ignored him. She frantically tried to reach Ethan’s gun. “I wouldn’t bother, Mrs. Manning. Just going to make a bad situation worse. Right now all I want to do is kill you. If you make me mad then I’ll have to hurt you first and you look like you been hurt enough already.” Blair looked up at him. She was out of options. This man was going to kill her. She saw the look of determination in his eyes. She saw him squeeze the trigger. She heard the sound of the gun firing: POP. CRACK. CAP. And she saw him fall to the ground with blood streaming out of his head and eyes suddenly as blank and cold as a shark’s. She stared at him for a moment longer, too scared to turn and see what misery fate deemed necessary to heap on her next. She slowly turned away from Padgett and focused on the gun in the shooter’s hand. How many damn times had someone pointed a gun at her in the last few days? Weeks? She was tired of it. Tired of everything but she had nothing left to fight with. She let her gaze drift upward to the face of the man holding the gun. Suddenly everything around her became wavy and distorted. Was she dreaming? Or, was this real? He squatted in front of her and looked at her for a few seconds then gathered her in his arms. She closed her eyes. Maybe she was dead. She always knew he would come for her and time in the other world operated by a different set of rules. How many years had passed in his world? Were Starr and Jack grown with children and grandchildren of their own? Had he married again and had other children and gotten on with his life? Would she have wanted anything less for him? “Blair, it’s okay. I’m going to take care of you now. Everything is okay.” She couldn’t let herself believe the nightmare was over. She couldn’t let herself believe and find out it was all a lie. She squeezed her eyes shut. Could not stand to open them and find herself in that place again clinging on to hopes that would never be. “Is she all right?” What? Sean? She opened her eyes and saw him looking at her with the most beautiful gray eyes she had ever seen. “She’s going to be all right. We need to get her to a hospital. Go check on your Uncle Ethan. Tell him the ambulance is on the way.” Sean ran next to Ethan. Blair looked at Todd. “How did? “Don’t talk, Blair. Don’t worry about a thing. It’s over. Sean is safe and I’m taking you both home.” “Is this real?” “Yeah, babe, it’s real. You don’t have to worry anymore. It’s all over. Katherine is dead and so is that murdering scum Padgett. I didn’t know about him, Blair. I swear I had no idea.” “Ethan?” “He’s pretty bad but he’s alive. If he can just hold on a few minutes more.” “Help-p-p-p-p-p-p! Help us.” What? Todd looked at Blair then stood up slowly. He gripped his gun and then scanned the area quickly. There was no way to avoid the obvious conclusion despite wanting it to be anything other than that truth. “It’s Katherine,” she said barely above a whisper. “Something must have stopped her fall.” Todd’s eyes seemed to turn hard as steel and twice as cold. “Not for long.” “Help us,” screamed Katherine. “I can’t hold on here much longer. Help us, for God’s sake. Help us.” Todd once again squatted in front of Blair. “It’ll be over soon, Blair. Even she’s not that strong. It’ll all be over soon.” Would it? Would it ever be over? She couldn’t hold back her tears any longer. How horrible did all of this have to be? “Todd, don’t let Sean see her die.” ================= Todd peered over the edge where he had seen Katherine and Sean-Ryan plummet minutes earlier. They were resting on a small ledge but Sean-Ryan was obviously severely wounded. His shirt was covered in blood and even from a distance he appeared pale gray. It was taking enormous strength for Katherine to keep her hold on the tree limb that allowed her to balance herself and hold onto Sean-Ryan as well. He cursed himself but the pain in Blair’s voice when she asked him to try to save Katherine melted his heart. He promised God when he found out she was alive that he would give Blair anything. Even this. He stretched out his hand. “Take my hand, Katherine. Take my hand.” “Sean-Ryan.” “He can’t be saved, Katherine. Let him go.” Katherine looked down at Sean-Ryan, who stirred slightly and then opened his eyes and said, “For God’s sake, let me go, Katherine.” It was obvious that it was taking all of the strength Sean-Ryan had left just to speak. “It’s over for me. I’ll wait for you on the other side.” “For how long?” “For as long as it takes. Never seem to be able to stay away from you.” “Let him go, Katherine," Todd said. "We both know he’d let you go in a heartbeat.” “I can’t.” “Don’t be stupid.” “Would you leave her?” Todd stared at her. What was he supposed to say? No he wouldn’t leave her. He’d learn how to fly but he wouldn’t leave her. Katherine looked him in the eye then let her gaze drift away. “Did I hear Sean?” “Yeah.” Her eyes widened. “You saved him?” “Right.” For the first time since he had known her he actually saw her eyes soften. “I guess things are as they should be.” “Take my hand, Katherine. Don’t make Sean live with this.” “You and I both know that he will be better off this way. Take care of my son.” Katherine released her hold on the branch, wrapped her arms around Sean-Ryan and then pushed off into space. Todd looked down but they disappeared from sight into the rocky hell of the abyss. There was nothing more he could do. He walked back to Blair who was pressing a cloth on Ethan’s wound to stem the blood and she rubbing his head as she talked to him softly. He could hear the sound of ambulances in the distance. When she looked up at him and he shook his head. He actually saw tears spring in her eyes. Women. He would never understand them. He squatted down in front of Sean. “I couldn’t save your mother…Katherine, Sean.” Sean nodded solemnly. “The last thing she said to me was to tell you that she loved you and she was sorry for everything she did.” Sean burst into tears and Todd pulled him into his arms and held him. And it really wasn’t a lie. In the end, Katherine, he believed, had come as close as she was capable of to saying that she loved her son. He heard the ambulance come to a screeching stop and then saw the medics rushing toward them with stretchers. He eased next to Blair, who was bending over Ethan, and held Sean with one arm and placed his other hand on Blair’s back. He looked over at Blair with bullet wounds and a body and face so battered and bruised he wouldn’t have recognized her and then at the small body of his son covered with purple badges of courage and the weight of his failure to protect them settled around his soul and pulled him into the dark pit of regret and loss. He honestly believed he’d never come up for air again. Comments?
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