Black Blood (14 page)

They had been
fighting about Gabe. He had wanted her to see him and she had
fought against her boyfriend for the sake of her family.

How
ironic.

As she had been
wasting her breath yelling at the guy she loved, they had been
plotting his demise. Harrison had been right.

What else is
new?

She rubbed her
throbbing head and tried to shake off the tiredness that enveloped
her. Knowing she wasn’t ready to ride yet, she flipped open the bag
on the back of her bike and rummaged for some kind of sugar
kick.

Her hand landed
on a small, hard object and she pulled it out with a confused
frown. She stared at the little flip phone in her palm, remembering
the dark haired man who had placed it in her hands that day on the
beach.

She wondered if
it was some kind of sign. Too caught up in her despair, she had
forgotten about the man who claimed he was her father. He had
warned her bad things were coming. Is this what he had meant? Was
Harrison trying to pass on the same message when she had dismissed
him on the beach?

His voice
filled her brain.

“
I believe
him.”

“
I just
think you should hear him out.”

“
He only
wants to talk, Gem.”

“
I know this
news hurts you, but you need to hear it.”

“
I’m only
trying to protect you.”

She ran her
thumb over the plastic before catching it under her nail and
flipping it open. A surge of desperation seared through her body as
she highlighted the only number in the directory. She hit the green
button and waited impatiently as it rang.

“Gabe
here.”

“We need to
talk.”

Chapter Nineteen

Beverly Beach, Florida
– 2011 AD

Twenty-five minutes later Gemma could hear the rumble of a
Harley engine pulling up behind her. She swiveled from her spot in
the sand and watched Gabe leap off his bike and stride towards her.
He oozed a calm confidence that she found both mesmerizing and
off-putting. Standing from her spot, she brushed her shorts and
tucked a strand of hair behind her ear as he came to a stop in
front of her.

“What happened?
Where’s Harrison?” Gabe’s voice was soft.

“Um…” Instant
tears lined her lashes. She brushed them aside and shoved her hands
into the back pockets of her denim shorts. “He doesn’t exist
anymore.”

She missed one
tear and felt it slide off the end of her chin.

Gabe’s eyes
swirled with compassion. She glanced up to meet them and realized
for the first time she was looking at someone who actually
understood. The revelation made the fog within her dissipate and
all the emotion she had been ignoring was exposed… a raw tender
wound that burned.

The tears she
had not yet shed bubbled over like a waterfall. Her whole body
convulsed with release. Her pitiful tears grew to stomach shaking
sobs that worked up her body. She curled over on herself and let
the anguish take her.

Without a word,
Gabe wrapped her in a firm embrace.

Her first
instinct was to pull away, but her body was shaking too badly. The
arms around her reminded her of Harrison and so she clung.

Time vanished
as Gabe shushed her and stroked her hair. She held on like a small
child and drained her body of the excess sorrow that had been
building over the weeks.

As her sobs
ebbed to hiccupy breaths, Gabe rubbed her back and drew her body
away so he could look at her.

“I need you to
tell me exactly what happened. You think you can do that?”

Gemma’s head
bobbed as she sniffed and wiped her nose with the back of her hand.
A large handkerchief was resting in her fingers a moment later and
she used it to clean up her face.

“Here, sit
down.”

She followed
his instructions and found her words tumbling out in a jumbled
explanation, starting with her fight with Harrison and ending with
the black pit in hell her life had become.

“And there’s so
much I don’t understand. Like why is all the stuff I had of his
gone? The red baggy shirt he let me take home. I can’t find it
anywhere, yet I know he gave it to me. I remember it so clearly.”
She shook her head in frustration. “But history’s changed and I
know that never happened now. I don’t get how it works.”

Gabe
looked at the ocean as he spoke. “Practicing time spirits have dual
memories. You remember life before and after the changes in
history… just like I remember meeting with Harrison two weeks ago,
but the waitress that served us breakfast will never know, because
for her it never happened.”

Gemma’s
cauldron bubbled as parts of her fragmented last words with
Harrison jumbled in her mind. She wanted to ask what Gabe meant by
“practicing time spirits
”
but
she had more important things to deal with first.

“
That’s
why I called you. I need to know what you guys talked about that
morning. He tried to tell me, but I wouldn’t let him,” her voice
cracked.

Gabe squeezed
her shoulder lightly. “Stop beating yourself up, kid. It won’t
change anything.”

She shot him a
glib smile.

“I’ll tell you
everything, but I just need to get one thing clear first.”

“What?” Gemma’s
skin prickled.

“Coyote Granger
was only put in prison, right… not killed?”

She shot him an
irritated frown. “Why does that matter?”

“It’s
important.”

“Why?”

“Just answer
the question.”

She could sense
Gabe’s frustration mounting over her reticence, but she didn’t come
here to talk about the day that nearly destroyed her. She came to
get some answers!

Relenting to
the fact she would probably get nowhere unless she gave into this
small request, she let out a long sigh and answered, “We handed him
over to the Sheriff. I don’t know what they planned to do with him.
Probably let him fester in a cell for a couple days then hang
him.”

Gabe’s head
bobbed as he looked to the horizon. “So there might be a chance
then,” he murmured.

“What do you
mean?”

“To get your
boy back.”

Gemma grabbed
his arm. “What? How? Will… will you go back and change it?”

“No.” Gabe
shook his head then looked at her with a smirk. “You will.”

Gemma felt her
insides prickle. Her head screamed instant denial, but her heart
knew better. If it hadn’t been for her fight against her father
only that afternoon she may have been laughing in Gabe’s face right
now, but her instincts told her she was capable.

“I don’t know
how,” she finally whispered.

“I do.”

Gemma turned to
face him, her heart beating wildly.

“You’d… you’d
help me?”

Gabe’s face
stretched with a smile. “Of course I will, but I need you to do
something for me too.”

Her heart
tripped out of rhythm.

“What?”

“I need you to
tell me everything about your life, about your travel, about your…
parents.”

Gemma could
sense his struggle over the word. If he was right about her
bloodline then she could understand why. Gazing up at his weathered
face she tried to see herself in him. She studied his tanned
complexion, his thick crop of hair and wondered if it could be
true. Her brain fought off the concept. Penelope and Alistair Hart
had been the only parents she had ever known. In spite of what they
had done, a loyalty for them was still engrained. The man next to
her was a complete stranger and if he really claimed to be who he
was, why hadn’t he come and taken her back years ago!

She turned away
with a scowl.

“In other words
you want me to spy on them!”

“I just need to
know what they’re up to.”

Her cauldron
simmered as she weighed up the man beside her. She didn’t want to
trust him. She didn’t want to do anything to help him! But he sat
there offering her a slice of hope that tasted so divine she knew
she couldn’t refuse it.

“Alright… you
teach me how to travel and I’ll tell you everything you need to
know.”

He gave a
silent nod of approval while keeping his eyes on the horizon.

“Lessons start
first thing tomorrow. Today, I need you to go home and pretend that
nothing has changed.”

Gemma’s brows
puckered.

“I’m guessing
your parents wouldn’t be overly delighted if they knew what you’re
planning to do.” His eyebrows rose as he tipped his head towards
her.

Gemma felt her
lips fighting with a smile.

Gabe rose from
the sand and placed a soft hand on the top of her head. “You try
get some sleep tonight. You’re going to need your strength. I’ll
text you the address in the morning.”

The fingers on
her hair vanished and Gemma turned to watch his departing form. She
felt a flutter of hope inside her ribcage and her lips stretched
with a smile.

Chapter
Twenty

Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida – 2011 AD

Gemma was still
smiling when she arrived home later that evening. Her conversation
with Gabe had been buzzing through her head all afternoon and
thoughts of seeing Harrison again made her insides want to burst.
She hoped she’d be able to do what Gabe said she could.

Morning
couldn’t come fast enough as she skipped up the stairs to her
bedroom. All she wanted to do was take a long shower and get a good
night’s sleep. Gabe said she would need it.

Her easy
traipse down the hallway was brought to a halt. Pausing outside her
room, she noticed the door ajar. Her brows wrinkled. Pushing the
door wide, she spotted her mother sitting on her bed. Her elegant
legs were crossed with her fingers interlaced over her exposed
knee.

Gabe said to
act like nothing had changed. That wouldn’t be a problem. One look
at the bland expression on her mother’s face had her insides
coiling.

“What are you
doing in my room?” She unlaced her shoes, avoiding eye contact.

“Waiting for
you to get home.”

Gemma didn’t
bother to hide her sigh as she threw her shoes towards the floor by
her closet. They bounced off the door with a bang and landed in a
muddle on the carpet. She felt a small burst of immature triumph
watching her mother struggle to hide her displeasure over such
unkempt behavior.

Clearing her
throat, Penelope pasted on another smile. “We haven’t talked in a
while and I miss that. How was your ride?”

“Okay.” Gemma
shrugged.

Her lack of
effort was followed by an icy silence. Gemma refused to budge. What
the hell did her mother expect? She’d taken away everything and now
she just wanted to pretend like it hadn’t happened.

You can shove that idea up your
-

“So…” Penelope
traced the pattern on Gemma’s quilt with her long finger. “What
happened today?”

Gemma’s
forehead crinkled. “What do you mean?”

“When you
resisted your father?”

Oh that. Play
it cool, Gem.

“Look, I don’t
know how I did it, okay. I just really didn’t want to go.”

“Why?”

“Why. You’re
asking me why?” Gemma couldn’t help the dry tone.

“Well, I want
to understand…”

“Understand…”
Gemma squeezed her eyes shut and pinched the bridge of her
nose.

Are you really
this stupid, Mom?

“Try to get
this.” Gemma fought to keep the quiver from her voice. “I was in
love with an amazing human being that you thought wasn’t good
enough for me so you vanquished him from this earth. Now you expect
me to be at your beck and call, traveling happily through time so
that I can help you complete whatever mission takes your fancy. And
I’m just supposed to be cool with it?”

She finished
with a flourish of hands and found her insides boiling at the
complete lack of response from her mother.

“Did you hear
anything I just said?”

Penelope
smoothed her right eyebrow with a delicate finger and cleared her
throat. “It was hard to miss.”

“That’s all
you’ve got to say?”

Her mother’s
sigh was long and tired. “We were only doing what was best.
Harrison wasn’t right for you.”

“
How
would you even know that? You’ve spoken, like, three sentences to
him in your entire life! He was a good person and he deserves to
exist! You used our skills as a weapon against me!”

“We didn’t know
what else to do!” Her mother jumped up from the bed and pointed a
finger. “You were being so stubborn. He wasn’t part of our plans
for your future.”

“
Your
plans
for
my
future. Am I
going to have any say in my own life?”

“Gemma, your
father and I know what’s best for you. We’re only doing this
because we care about you!”

Gemma shook her
head and turned away. “If you cared about me you would have given
Harrison a chance.”

“
We did!
We let you date him for a while, but when you made it blatantly
clear that you weren’t going to follow our rules, we had to
intervene. Gemma, try to understand. We-”

“I don’t want
to understand! What you did was wrong!”

“We were only
protecting you.”

“From what?
Being happy?”

“Gemma.” Her
mother’s shoulders slumped as she let out a disappointed tut.

“You know what,
Mom, if this is how you guys care about me, please stop. I don’t
want your input and I don’t need your protection.”

Her mother’s
shoulders pinged back into position, her face pinching tight. “I
guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree on that point.”

The discussion
was over. The air around them was strained tight with tension and
Gemma knew she had to let this one end now or the apocalypse might
begin right here in her bedroom.