CHAPTER FOURTEEN
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So, at least he didn’t want to be a murderer. That was something, wasn’t it? The twilight deepened. Soon the comet would appear above the cliffs behind them. Tammy watched his face grow worried again. “What is it?”
He chewed his lip. “This does not mean I might not kill people in the future. If I start fires all the time…. You, you could be in danger too.”
Okay. If they were going to have any chance together she had to take care of this right now. “Everybody starts out being scared of their power. At least everybody I know.” Who knew what happened with Clan members? “But you get the hang of it.”
He squinted at her. “The…hang?”
“I mean you learn to live with the power, control it, use it,” she said, almost reaching out to touch him before she caught herself.
“What use is starting fires?” His shoulders sagged.
She cast about. “Well, it’s getting cold with the breeze off the ocean now that the sun has gone down. Why don’t you start us a fire?”
He looked at her incredulously.
She grinned and jumped up. “Come on. Let’s go gather some brush before it gets any darker.” She darted up from the sand toward the brushy hills. Hope this isn’t a mistake.
But the feel of him pounding up the sand behind her was like the pounding of her heart. It felt so right. Soon they were gathering small branches into bundles. Thomas broke off some larger branches from several scrub oaks. He really was strong. That sent a shiver down her spine. She also found some driftwood on the way back down to their blankets. After several trips, Thomas knelt to stack the brush into a teepee and lay the larger pieces carefully on the outside. Tammy plopped down on the blanket.
“Okay,” she said purposefully. “Now let’s get started.” He crouched beside her. God, those bunched thigh muscles….
She pulled her hair back behind her ears. This was where the rubber met the road. If he just blew up their little construction in a blast of flame it would scare both of them to death. She thought back to what her brothers and sisters had said about getting their powers, and how they learned to control them. Drew was still working on it. What if Thomas burned down the island, or the boat on the way back or something? But she had to at least appear confident.
“What do I do?” he asked.
“You, uh, relax, first of all.”
“I don’t feel relaxed.” He didn’t look it either. The furrowed brow, the tense shoulders, all screamed that he was knotted up inside and out.
“Well…uh, close your eyes and sit down cross-legged.” Maybe it was just like the yoga she used to do with Kee, or Drew’s meditation. He looked doubtful, but he did what she said. She closed her eyes too. Safer that way. “Now, think about breathing. Feel the air come into your lungs.” She slowed her voice down. “Feel it go out.” She breathed out. So did he. “Now, let go of the muscles in your shoulders. Feel the tension drain away like…like rivulets of water coursing down a rock into a stream, down your arms…out through your fingers. The water runs down your face like tears. Embrace them. Let all the muscles in your face go slack.” She felt like a wet noodle herself. “Have a thought. Doesn’t matter which one. Then let it go. It drifts away, replaced by another thought. But that one drifts away too.” She didn’t speak for a moment as her own thoughts drifted to her family. How she loved them. That was part of the problem, wasn’t it? But that was for later. She let the thought go. The comet would appear soon in the night sky, an ever-present threat of what was to come. It was beautiful, really, that comet. How strange that destruction could be so beautiful…. She let it go. “Now think about fire. A tiny fire, just a spark really, pulsing against the darkness and the cold. Open your eyes.” She opened hers too. “And put out your hand.” He extended his palm toward their laid fuel. “Feel that tiny spark inside?”
He nodded, wonder in his eyes.
“Now let that tiny spark flow out through your palm. Just like the tension drained from your shoulders that little spark will travel from your core like the rivulet of water finds the stream. Don’t strain, just let it go….”
He breathed and she breathed with him.
A spark appeared in the brushy center of their little pile and a tendril of smoke wound into the air above it.
They both gasped.
He jerked back his palm and held his hand against his chest as if it were a wounded bird. His eyes were round.
She grinned. “Yep. You’re a Firestarter. And you can control it. You don’t have to make fires when you don’t want to.”
“What if I get emotional? What if I….”
She could feel the tension ramping up in him. The fire burned up brighter, threatening. “Shushhhhh,” she soothed. “Then you just let it go. Just be in the moment, even if it’s an emotional moment. The emotion is yours. Own it. It doesn’t have to start fires. It doesn’t have to be destructive, even if you feel fear or anger—not if you acknowledge it and let it be what it is.” God, but she was making this up. She was so out of her depth here. She saw him take a big breath then let it out. She felt the tension seep out of him.
“I am afraid of this thing.”
“That’s okay. I get afraid too.” He was accepting his fear. That was good. She chanced a glance to the fire. It settled into a cheerful crackle. “See?”
A tiny smile touched his lips. “You are a wise woman, Tammy Tremaine.”
She chuckled. “A wise woman cannot be named Tammy.”
“Why not?”
She shook her head. “Because Tammy is a diminutive. It’s for little girls.” And wasn’t that just the problem? The thing struck her like a blow. To her family she was Tammy, the youngest, the baby. Only she wasn’t a baby anymore.
“You could take another name,” Thomas said slowly.
Her brows drew together as she considered that. He was setting her free, really, free to be her own woman, a grown woman who made her own decisions. Someone who could be of…of value to herself and others, like she’d just been valuable to him. Not just someone to be cared for like a baby, but one who could take care of those she loved. Like her family and…. She glanced to Thomas. “Tammy isn’t my real name, of course. My real name is…Tamsen. Only Daddy and Mom call me that. And Kemble, just because he always imitates Daddy.” She sighed.
“You could make everyone call you Tamsen,” he said, his face now lit by the fire that spread its warmth over them both. He nodded thoughtfully. “But what would be the point? Tammy is a beautiful name. Magical.” His eyes were alight and his lips turned up, so slightly…. “Because you are magical. One imbues one’s name with who one is. It does not define one. You define it, Tammy. You own it, as you just said to me. It is you.” He turned her words back on her. “To me you will always be Tammy.”
Tammy was shocked and a little in awe of his thoughtfulness. She felt a little silly about thinking a name meant she was a baby. She determined if she was a baby or a strong and useful member of the family. Thomas had given her that too.
Tammy was code for who she was, and she defined that. She saw herself reflected in his eyes and knew that he loved what he saw. They shared a secret—that she wasn’t a baby any more. She was a woman. It was like Tammy had become a secret name, even though it was one she’d owned all her life. A kind of peace entered her. She took a breath and let it go. She let a lot of things go: resentment of her father for being injured, for instance. Of course it was never his fault. But she’d chosen to resent him. How had she never recognized how selfish that was? She’d resented her mother for losing her healing powers, her siblings for having magic when she didn’t, and being imprisoned in her family’s house. She resented that life was more complicated than it had been at fourteen. She’d resented always being the baby. But that had been her choice all along, hadn’t it? How convenient, to have everything taken care of for you.
Now she didn’t choose that any more.
She gave a little mewl of surprise as the fire, and Thomas, and the beach all vanished. Thomas gasped beside her.
Instead, she saw a dim world of gray-blue. A black silhouette of rock bulged up to her right. She must be turning her view from side to side, because the field of vision rotated left and caught movement. A hundred fluttering dark flags drifted by then flashed away.
A fish! She was seeing through the eyes of a fish, a big one, by the reaction of the school of tiny fish in front of her. She moved toward the fleeing school. Oh, my God! She had to get out of here or she was probably going to view this big fish’s evening meal. She tried to pull back, but the vision was stubborn.
Don’t panic. But she was panicking. Those little grunting sounds were hers.
“Tammy! What’s wrong? Your eyes are white.” She felt two strong hands on her shoulders and a shock of electric current that leaped down into her loins. “Ohhhhhh,” he cried. Was that because he felt it too? But the hands didn’t leave her shoulders. She wanted to tell him she was in the grip of her own power, but she couldn’t seem to form any words. In her vision, she slid through the school of shadowy fish, and on over a sandy bottom—just a lighter smear below her, really—dotted with outcroppings of rock covered with waving fronds. She couldn’t really make them out, but the movement was very clear to her.
She felt Thomas gather her in next to his body.
“Is this what you see?” he breathed into her ear.
She tried to tell him she was trapped, but all she could do was make some distressed grunting sounds and jerk ineffectually against him.
“Easy, easy,” he said in a soothing voice.
He was right. Isn’t that what she’d just been telling him? Relax and you can control it. And it had worked for him, miracle of miracles. She made herself go limp and thought about breathing, all the while the dark world of the ocean at night moved by her. She had to let go, counter-intuitive though that was, in order to have the vision let go of her. Wasn’t that what she had done when she saw through Lance’s eyes, Cally’s? She just thought about wanting out.
She half-expected it to blink out. Instead it slowly faded, and was replaced by the crackling fire against a background of black waves laced with white foam as they broke against the beach. She looked up at Thomas. “You…you saw it too?”
He nodded, raising his brows in amazement. “When I touched you.” He blinked several times. “We were seeing the ocean through the eyes of a fish, weren’t we?”
“Yes. A big one. Maybe a shark, or a sea bass. I’m not sure.” She felt a little shaky, like her world had just been jerked out from under her. “I…I couldn’t get out.”
He held her against his side, and leaned his cheek on her hair. She felt like her insides were melting. And tingling with sexual need. “But you did get out. I felt you relax and the vision disappeared. Your eyes went from white back to the color of a shallow bay in the afternoon.”
“My eyes were white?” God, but that sounded like a bad horror movie.
“Opaque, like ivory. I think it is a sign that your power is working.” There was a moment of silence as she enjoyed the feeling of his hard body next to hers. “This is a very good power,” Thomas said after a moment. “You could know many things.”
She pulled back, sorry instantly on some cellular level for the loss of contact. “Like a spy? I don’t want to be a spy. That’s so…well, morally questionable.”
He looked at her in surprise. “But spying isn’t all court intrigues like the Borgias. Spies have also been great heroes, saving lives and making their country strong. I think of Sir Francis Walshingham. Why he….” He seemed to catch himself and pulled her back in against his body. That just felt so right. And so dangerous. She was a quivering mass of Jello inside. “Just know I think you would do good things with knowledge you gained from animals,” he continued. “You are a kind and good person, Tammy. You would be a hero-spy if you could choose which animal you could share vision with.”
“I can choose,” she said grudgingly. “Well, sometimes. I chose to see through the eyes of my dog and my horse. It’s just that tonight…it engulfed me.” The feel of his body was driving her crazy. That’s when she noticed that the fire was burning up brighter.
“Uh, Thomas….” She pointed to the fire and scooted out of his embrace. Not what she wanted but they had to be sensible. Neither of them had very good control of their powers yet. He looked sad but he let her go. The fire settled back to friendly instead of an incipient firestorm.
“This is going to be difficult,” he muttered, frowning. “I want to touch you, but without burning you.” He turned his head. In the light of the fire she could see how blue his eyes were. “Would you allow that? If I didn’t start a fire?”
She swallowed. Was she just going to give into this thing? Would she lose herself if she did? Was there any hope to avoid being tied by destiny to this unlikely member of the Clan? Did she want to avoid it? She was a woman now. She must make her own decision. In her heart of hearts she knew there was no avoiding her connection with this man. Her siblings hadn’t been able to avoid their destinies. And if they tried, it nearly shredded their souls. But she didn’t want to avoid the connection. Remember what Greta said. Love is rare, and when you find it, no matter how difficult, you have to go after it.
God help her. She nodded.
His rare smile lit up his face. “Then I will learn to control it. We will go to Morgan. She will know how this thing is done. We can start in the morning.”
“Wait a minute, bud. I’m not going anywhere near the Clan. If we need some advice, I’ll swallow my pride and we’ll go to my family.”
“The Tremaines?” He looked aghast.
That actually might not work out well either. It wasn’t because her family was evil, as he thought they were. They were well-intentioned and that was just the problem. Overprotective, in spades. And if they knew he was Clan…. She’d just have to put her foot down and not let Tris or Kemble badger him. Daddy would help. He’d understand. And if her mother was playing matchmaker, Tammy would just tell her to lay off. “They aren’t so bad,” she countered.
“Neither is Morgan,” he said stubbornly.
She took a frustrated breath. “Mexican standoff.”
“What?”
She rolled her eyes. “We are at an impasse. You’ll never believe my family is not evil, and I’ll never believe the same about Morgan.”
“Does this mean we won’t learn to control our powers so we can hold each other?” The pain in his voice was palpable.
She shook her head. “We just have to practice without their help.” Actually, a thought occurred. Maybe she could kill two birds with one stone. Dangerous though. “I could practice seeing through the eyes of animals. You could touch me. Just a little bit. That way you can see with me. I…I think you would be a steadying influence.” That might be a lie. She wasn’t sure. “Then later I can help you test your ability to control the fire.”
“I don’t know about that part,” he said, wary. “What if I set you on fire?”
“You did fine with the bonfire. And we’ll go a step at a time.”
He still looked dubious.
“Well, we’ll start with me then.” Which is what she wanted anyway. She was about three feet away from him, on her beach mat. She pulled on her sweatshirt against the damp night air. “I’ll see if I can see through my cat’s eyes. I’ve done him before. Don’t know if I can from this distance.” Bagheera would be with the family she was pretty sure. Thomas would see her family for what they were. Maybe…. “His name is Bagheera.”
“That sounds like an Indian name, perhaps Sanskrit. Is he from India?”
Wow. This guy really was well read. Within limits. “No. But he’s black like the panther in The Jungle Book. You wouldn’t have read it. Rudyard Kipling wrote in in the 1890’s, I think. If I anchor in on him, then you reach out and touch me. Just one finger maybe. See if you can see what I’m seeing. If I get stuck, you could help me like you did with the shark.”
He nodded seriously. “I will help you, Tammy.”
She chuckled. “Okay.” She matched his serious tone. “But be warned. Cats see better at night than we do but their focus isn’t as sharp as ours in the light.”
Then she closed her eyes, listened to her breathing and the crackle of the fire, the crashing of the waves. She thought of Bagheera. As always, she gasped when she was jerked away from the world around her. Thomas gave a little yelp.
What appeared instead of the beach was blurry, as she knew it would be. Bagheera was stalking around…the kitchen at The Breakers. Yep. There was Jane, looking like she was going to pop at any moment. And Kee. She knew Kee’s dress. It was red. But Bagheera only saw a kind of gray-green. He was more interested in the chickens laid out on the cutting board ready to be dismembered, probably to make Jane’s chicken and dumplings. Tammy loved that dish. She felt a touch on her arm. Thomas. He must have been alerted to her success by her by her white eyes. She felt herself relax into a smile. She wanted to say something to him but again she couldn’t. He didn’t seem to have that problem.
“I see,” he breathed. “They are…cooking?”
She couldn’t answer him. Now Jane was shushing Bagheera away from the chickens. He leaped nimbly over to the breakfast table, where her mother was looking fondly at her father. They were talking. If only she could hear what they were saying. How would she let Thomas know her family as she did if he couldn’t hear them? Bagheera could hear them of course. It just wasn’t coming through her link to the cat. Why was that?
She imagined opening her ears and relaxed into the center of her body. She must go deeper into her power….
“You t-take such good care of me,” her father said. “I know I have been grumpy ever s-since the hospital.”
Oh. My. God. She could hear them.
Her mother kissed his forehead. “I think you’ve been very patient with your recovery.”
Her father chuckled. “P-patient isn’t a word I would use. But I can finally see p-progress. Of course…I’m n-not what I was….” His expression grew wistful.
Her mother sat back. “But you are! You’re the same man I fell in love with all those years ago. Morgan can’t take that away from us.” She kissed him softly on the mouth. Sweet.
“Hey, lovebirds, get a room.” Bagheera turned to stare at Lanyon, coming in with Greta.
“You should talk. You never come out of yours!” That was Drew, looking less than her usual cool self. She seemed exhausted.
“Well, we’re newlyweds,” Lan protested, looking at Greta with so much love in his eyes no one could mistake it. “We’re supposed to spend all our time….”
“Shush!” Greta interrupted. Bagheera couldn’t see her flush as red, but it darkened somewhat and her embarrassed expression said it all. “Could we have some tact, here?” Her forgiveness was also apparent as she nuzzled Lan’s shoulder.
Kemble came in, looking disheveled. Jane hustled over and took his hand. “What’s wrong?”
“No dice on the Crowley site. Luc says there’s nothing there. How will we find Morgan before the Pentacle forms? When she uses it to increase her power, what then?”
“She’ll b-bring destruction down on civilization. Right after s-she kills us.” The couples around the room reacted to Daddy’s harsh words with shock and pulled closer to each other. “Which is why we c-can’t give up t-trying to locate her.”
“We’ll think of something.” Kemble ran his hands through his hair. His eyes were desperate. He thought the fate of the family was all on him.
There were nods around the table as her family tried to find courage. The couples hugged each other tightly.
“Where’s Tammy?” Drew asked. “Is she still down at the stables?”
“We’d better get a vet in here if that damned horse is still colicky.” That was Kemble. “Dr. Reardon is reliable, but I hate to let down our guard, even for him.”
Uh, oh. She didn’t want to hear the blow-up that was going to come next. She didn’t see Michael anywhere to diffuse the situation….
“Relax,” Thomas said, rubbing the finger on her forearm in soothing circles. “You’re getting tense.”
She had to get out of Bagheera’s head before Thomas saw and heard too much.
Michael came in through the French doors. “Michael, where is my sister?” Drew asked.
Let it go. Let it all go, now.
The scene at The Breakers faded and was replaced with the fire crackling before them.
Thomas stared at her thoughtfully. “You did well. I could even hear them talking. And you controlled your exit….” He trailed off.
“You helped.”
“Who—who were those people?”
“My family. The older couple was my parents. They’ve had a hard time since the Clan attack left Daddy in a coma. My mother lost her healing powers and he lost his as an Adapter.”
“What is an Adapter?”
“He can pretty much do anything just by reading or hearing about it. It’s a very annoying power, especially for his sons.”
“Oh. And…and the younger couple who came in?”
“My brother Lanyon and his new wife, Greta.”
“I remember. Morgan said they escaped from the underground place with all the lights. He is the one who controls sound.” Thomas looked shaky. But maybe that wasn’t bad. He’d just had one leg of the stool of his beliefs removed, if he truly saw what her family was.
There was a little silence. “Your family seems to love each other.”
“Yes,” she said, not pushing. “They do. We all do.”
“I think I remember my mother looking at me that way. And my father.”
Now to try and break another leg of the stool. “I should practice some more. Maybe we could find an animal to let us see Morgan.” She hoped the Clan would cooperate in her scheme.
“She has a bird. His name is Edgar. He is always with her.”
“Excellent. I don’t know him, so this will be real test of how far I can use my powers. They’re in the desert, right?”
“Yes. East of here many miles. In a canyon.” He sounded doubtful.
She inhaled. “Well, all I can do is try. This time, I’ll touch you, and you think about Edgar. What does he look like?”
He reached for her hand. His clasp was strong, his hands callused and warm. The effect on her body was immediate. She tried not to think about that. “He is large and has black feathers, and bright, beady black eyes. His claws are long and curved. He sits often on Morgan’s shoulder.”
“A raven I bet, if his name is Edgar. Imagine him and the place where Morgan might be.” Tammy closed her eyes and felt the connection to Thomas. She let her mind drift with his, relaxed, calm. Of course she knew what a raven looked like. But Thomas thinking about Edgar seemed to make the bird more real to Tammy.
The room that popped up around them was sterile and looked like it was bathed in a black light. Oh, my God! Ravens can see ultraviolet light! The rock paperweight on the desk glowed purple. The white of some guy’s tee shirt gleamed. Everything was incredibly sharp. Birds obviously must see well to fly or they’d bump into things. And they had to locate prey from far away. But to experience each object in such detail was breathtaking. HD3 was nothing compared to this. How different this vision was from Lance’s or Gwen’s or Bagheera’s. She could feel the raven cocking his head to peer around because the angles of the room changed. And right next to them (for she and Thomas were one with the raven) was the neck of a beautiful woman, dark hair pulled back. Morgan? The raven was perched on her shoulder.
Tammy could see that Morgan was talking. She and Thomas had to hear. Most importantly, Thomas. She dove deeper into the raven, opened herself further, frightening as that was when she knew she was seeing deep into the lair of the Clan. She was rewarded by sound to the movie.
“God damn it, Jason!” The vision rocked as Morgan began pacing. “We’ve got to find him. I’ll never locate another like him in time for the ceremony.”
“There have to be innocents out there,” the man rumbled. Because eyes were light they reflected purple in the ultraviolet vision of the raven.
Morgan threw up her hands, causing the raven to caw and rustle its wings for balance. “He must have the genes, idiot. It took me years to find Brian and Brina Tremaine, and look how that turned out. They were too headstrong by the time I found them. Flat out refused to serve me. It still makes my blood boil. They cared more about each other than me. I never made that mistake again. No one will care more about a mate than about me. And the Tremaines will pay for their disloyalty.” Here she stopped to contain herself. She continued with elaborate control, as though talking to a child. “So I found a pair that had already conceived and got them out of the way. I had the child raised as I wished, willing to do whatever I wanted. Strong and comely, so I would enjoy the consummation. Ignorant and dependent, so I didn’t have another failure like the Tremaine debacle. And pure. That above all. It took years.”
Tammy felt Thomas’s touch turn to a tense grip on her forearm.
Morgan whirled on Jason, almost unseating the raven. “There is no alternative to Thomas. The comet will achieve the Pentacle in four nights.”
“We haven’t found any tracks outside the compound,” Jason said, his face impassive. “Of course, it’s been windy. Or he could have kept to the rocks. I’ve got search parties combing the west side of the ridge in case he hiked over the top.”
“You’d better find him alive.”
The fear that rose in Tammy’s throat and the tension in Thomas’s grip seemed to throw them out of the vision. Tammy’s chest heaved as she looked up at Thomas. Her horror was reflected in his face.
“What did she mean, ‘get them out of the way?’” he asked, his voice drenched in pain. Which meant he already knew. “My parents died in a clash between tribes in the Sudan….”
Tammy couldn’t speak. She’d wanted him to see that the Clan was different. She hadn’t counted on this.
“She couldn’t have had them killed.” His gaze darted this way and that, looking for any way to avoid the truth. Then his gaze rose to Tammy’s. “She doesn’t want anyone to have love, except love for her, does she?”
Tammy thought there was a way to give him proof. “Our genes are activated by finding a mate. Clan members should each have their love by their side if they have a power.”
Thomas sucked in a breath. “But they don’t. I didn’t see a single pair in their compound.”
“Yeah. We think she kills the one whose power doesn’t matter as much to her.”
Thomas jerked to his feet and began pacing in the sand. The fire lit his face from below, making his expression, contorted in pain, seem demonic. “She raised me to be dependent? I’m some kind of an experiment, an ignorant dupe? That is my purpose?”
“Maybe that’s why she didn’t want you to know much about the modern world. You would need her to help you make your way.” That wasn’t likely to make him feel better. But then, this pain was inevitable.
He whirled, shaking. The fire leaped up, sparks flying. Then he sagged and the fire died back down. Somehow that didn’t make Tammy any happier. “She placed me with monks in a remote location to keep me stupid and pure.”
Tamsen nodded cautiously.
“But I wasn’t pure. The monks had to beat me because I wasn’t.” His voice was drenched in self-loathing. She could practically feel him drifting away on shame and disillusion. “I did not know love. And now she thinks I am so much her creature I will let her use me for this…ceremony.” His voice had gone flat.
To grow up without love…. Tammy’s hatred for Morgan flared up like Thomas’s fire. No one deserved what he must be feeling. She pushed up off the sand and stood him front of him.
“You are not her creature, any more than my parents were. They escaped and so can you. They had a happy life, filled with love and family. You saw that tonight. You must have.”
He gave the tiniest of nods. She could see his eyes flicker as he struggled. He was stronger than he realized. She knew he was.
“They aren’t out killing people. They have love.”
She had to convince him he had it in him. “You can lead that life too. Thomas, you know love. You remember your father and mother, don’t you? They loved you.”
“I remember. But they are like characters in a book, not real.”
“But books can teach us about love, can’t they? You spoke of Tristan and Isolde. Did they not love?” She was gaining steam. “And you know Shakespeare. I’ll bet you read Romeo and Juliet. What about Beatrix and Benedict, or Katherine and Petruchio? They were all lovers.”
He blinked. “I only know the words.” His gaze steadied and fell on her. The burning there almost took Tammy’s breath away. “Or maybe I do know…”
“Well, you see? That’s a start.” Tammy tried to get her mental balance. She wasn’t ready for that look in his eyes. Or maybe she was more than ready, but she was scared. It would be so final if that heat in his expression and the fire she felt in her own loins ever joined. Conflagration worse than any fire he could start. But if she wanted him to have courage, that meant she had to have courage too. “Maybe Morgan forgot that humans have always known love, not just after 1800. And they could think for themselves too.” She watched thoughts flicker through Thomas’s eyes.
“Perhaps Brother Theodosius was rebellious,” he said slowly. “Like your parents. Perhaps she did not mean him to let me read about love.” His gaze rested on her.
Her body knew just what they should be doing right now. She got a grip on herself. “We have to find protection. They will realize you came on the helicopter very shortly. They will come for you. You are too important to them.”
“But where will we go? She will not stop until she finds me. And…and I no longer want to be a part of her purpose,” he said with decision. “Not if she kills anyone who loves.” His face contorted in pain again.
“I know, I know,” she soothed.
“I have no purpose now,” he said, in almost a whisper.
How could she have ever thought he was an evil member of the Clan? Morgan had tried to keep him from being a whole human being, but Thomas had too big a soul for that. She put her hand on his shoulder and the kindling of the flame inside her was almost comforting. He was for her. She was for him. And there was only one way to protect him, though it might put others she loved in danger. No good choices. But she had to have some faith here. The only ones who could possibly stand against Morgan were her family. She’d worry about their reaction to Thomas later. And if they were going to be short-sighted about Thomas—well, they’d have her to deal with. She wasn’t little Tammy anymore.
“We’ll go to The Breakers,” she said firmly, as though she had all the confidence in the world. “My family will protect us.” She looked up at the comet. “That will put their lives in danger too. But if you’re important to Morgan, then it’s very important to the world that she not have you.” She whirled to the brushy hill above them and shouted over the waves. “Mr. Marrec! We’re going home.”