The Keepers Book Two of the Holding Kate Series (16 page)

“Don’t worry, Corey. Trip will save her,” she panted and winced at the pressure I put on her wound.

“Corey, what are you going to do about, about what we saw, what we saw them doing, before?” Tara’s lip trembled and tears ran down her cheeks. She looked so pale.

“Ah, honey,” I tied my sleeve around her leg and then gathered her into my arms. “Don’t worry about that. We’ll hear them out and deal with it. We both know how connected they are.”

Tara let out a snort. “You would forgive her anything. I don’t think I am as…” She let out a sigh as she passed out. I squeezed her to my chest and pressed my lips to her forehead. I needed to get to Kate, but couldn’t leave her here like this, unconscious and defenseless.

QUANTUM PERSPECTIVE SOURCE (QPS): TRIP CARSON

Trip dripped black sludge back along the path of blood and drag marks until he found Tara and Corey. Corey sat on the ground with Tara draped over his lap. He cradled her torso in his arms and rocked back and forth. His eyes squeezed shut. Agonizing grief mingled with sweat and dirt covered his face.

Trip’s heart cramped up.

“Tara!” He ran toward them. Corey’s eyes snapped open and he focused on Trip. His face morphed from terror to confusion to recognition. Trip realized how frightening he appeared covered in black tar.

“Trip?” Corey croaked. “We couldn’t save her. They got away.” He gently laid Tara’s body down on the ground, kissed her forehead, and rose.

“I have to go find her! Stay here with Tara while I track Kate.” Corey moved to walk around him, but Trip placed a restraining hand on his shoulder.

Trip couldn’t form the sentence that would knife through Corey. So instead, he formed the question that would rip out his own heart. “Corey, is Tara—?” He couldn’t say it. Brows crashed together, he looked down at Tara.

“What? No. She just passed out. I think she lost too much blood.” He motioned to her leg and the tourniquet.

Trip sighed and a shockwave passed through his body. The thought of losing both of them in one day had choked the breath out of him.

“Where did the jackals go?” Trip recovered and slung black gunk from his weapon.

“Look, we can talk all about it after I find Kate!” Corey’s voice, impatient and annoyed, grated as he tried to move around Trip again.

Trip’s grasp on his shoulder tightened. The sorrow of losing Kate pressed on his chest, and he couldn’t breathe. Corey considered Trip’s expression and staggered back. He snatched a glimpse past Trip to the trail, and from the dawning grief on his face, put the facts together. Trip had emerged from the exact trail Corey aimed to go. He already knew Kate’s fate.

Corey grabbed Trip’s arm and his legs wobbled. “Trip! Trip?” He tried to run past him again, but Trip held him firm.

“She’s gone, Corey.” Trip barely struggled to hold him, the strength leached out of Corey at the revelation.

“No,” he whispered. “No she’s not.”

“Yeah, that mutt dragged her into the tar pit. I think she died of blood loss before he even got there. I followed the trail of—of. I tried. I tried to. Find.” He couldn’t say anymore. Grief broke out of him in a choked gurgle.

Corey collapsed onto his knees and doubled over. “No,” he insisted, in shock, Trip figured. He had to be, because he processed the news far too well.

Trip knelt down beside him, expecting him to lose it any minute. Corey looked into his eyes and peace poured out of him. “She’s not dead, Trip.”

“Listen, Corey, I know you want to believe that, but…”

“Trip, we are connected.” He touched his heart.

Trip knew all about their “thousand year connection” but didn’t really want to hear about it again. He had a connection with her, too. “She’s dead, Corey. I saw him drag her into the pit myself. I jumped in after her and almost drowned. There is no way she is still alive.”

“She is. I can feel it. She’s alive.” Assurance swelled in him. Trip wanted desperately to believe him, but he couldn’t. Corey was wrong, dead wrong.

Tara moaned and Trip crawled over to her. “Hey, beautiful.” He cradled her in his arms.

“Trip,” she sighed. “You got her. You saved Kate.” More of a statement than a question, it hung on her lips. She never doubted that he would succeed. Trip burned with shame. Tara seemed to understand his feelings for Kate more than he did. Actually, she probably did with the life experience she had gained from her two-century jump.

But Kate was gone.

He shook his head and felt his face crumple into sorrow.

“No! Oh no, Trip!” Tara wrapped her arms around him and he sobbed like a baby into her hair. She sat up, and pushed him away from her, and dragged herself over to Corey.

“Corey?” She took his face into her hands, searching his expression.

Trip stiffened, stunned by her actions. He just assumed her concern registered for him, but she cared more about Corey’s feelings than Trip’s.
Well she had known Corey for 200 years, and she saw Kate as his wife.
Trip frowned.
Tara’s my girlfriend! Shouldn’t she be a little more concerned about my pain than Corey’s?

Trip turned around to look at them. Her arms wrapped around Corey, but her eyes bored into Trip. He caught the accusation in them and remembered the kiss. They had witnessed Kate’s last kiss, and she hadn’t kissed Corey, her husband. She kissed Trip, the betrayer. Tara’s stoic expression shamed him. Corey’s loss loomed great. He didn’t just lose the only love of his life once. He lost her twice within an hour, once to Trip when he caught them in a fiery kiss, and again when Trip came back without saving her. Horror settled over him, and acid burned his stomach.

Corey shook his head and whispered to Tara. She frowned and then arched a brow. Trip knew what Corey tried to convey, but he also recognized it as the talk of denial, grief stricken delusion. Trip shook his head at Tara, and she turned away.

“Come on, let’s get back to camp.” Trip didn’t want to be out there in the dark with those demon hounds and Tara injured.

“I’ll carry you.” He started toward Tara, but she held up her palm.

“I’m fine.” She wrapped her arm around Corey’s shoulder and hobbled away.

“Tara, you can’t walk all the way back on that leg,” Trip argued.

“Then Corey will carry me.”

Corey’s face turned three shades of red, but he kept his focus on the ground. Tara hobbled forward, and he bent down, scooped her into his arms, and then tromped into the forest.

Trip ground his teeth, but guarded their backs and covered their tracks to make sure they weren’t being followed. Just before sunset they lumbered back into camp.

Pinky—Trip refused to call her by that other name—stood up and ran two feet forward then skidded to a halt.

Dirk looked up from the log he straddled. “Took you long enough.” He frowned as he rose. “We were just about to start searching.”

“What’s wrong with Tara?” Mel stepped out of the tent and Donnie followed.

Pinky craned her neck around to see behind them. Her expression went from worried to confused. “Where’s Kate?” she asked Corey.

Everyone stared at Corey and Tara, frowns deepening and thoughts churning. Trip knew what they were thinking. Why did Corey carry Tara, instead of him? Their scans kept sliding from Corey and Tara to Trip, to the forest behind them.

“Report,” Dirk snapped when he figured out something went wrong.

“We were attacked,” Corey grunted and carried Tara over to the log that Dirk had vacated and gently set her down. “We got separated.” He wouldn’t look at Trip.

Mel and Pinky converged on Tara with the first aid kit and began unwrapping her leg.

“Kate and I decided to race to a cliff face we could see between the trees. We were just messing around. When we got to the ridge these—” Trip shook his head, distracted by the memory of his death kiss. He crumpled onto a camp stool.

“Jackals,” Corey filled in.

Trip drew a shaky breath. “Just one at first, but demonic looking.” Trip scrunched his face together. “Its focus latched onto Kate and attacked. I killed it before it got to her, and we, um…”

Tara shifted on the log, her face burning and her eyes even hotter as she glared at Trip. He glanced at Corey and saw the agony of betrayal return to him.

“We were about to come back when Corey and Tara found us.”

“They had company,” Tara spat.

“Hundreds of these jackal things attacked us,” Corey said softly.

Alarm registered on Pinky’s face and her shoulders stiffened. “Corey, where is Kate?” Sadness rang in her tone. Already knowing the answer, she moved to Corey.

Trip couldn’t bear for him to have to tell them. “She, she’s gone,” he muttered.

“Gone?” Dirk crossed his arms over his massive chest.

“She’s dead,” Trip cracked out.

Everyone converged on Corey, except Dirk. He walked over to Trip and put his arm on his shoulder. He knew how Trip felt about Kate. He saw them in the tornado jump when she chose Trip.

When they were together. Happy. Before Corey and Tara came back and things went off kilter.

“I’m sorry, man,” he murmured.

Trip nodded.

“Where did you leave her? Do we need to do anything with, you know, the body?”

“No, it dragged her into the tar pit,” Trip lamented.

Dirk shook his head, taking in the sight of his tar-splotched clothes.

They looked over to the others, the two-century group. They were all so tight, a family. No they were more than a family. They had been a community for 200 years. They had been through sorrow, grief, loss, joy, everything over and over together, through lifetimes. They had seen each other fall in love, have babies, grandbabies, great grandbabies and held each other through the loss of them all. Trip didn’t think there existed a tighter bond on any planet.

That is probably what drew Trip, Kate, and Dirk together, other than the tornado experience and grief for the kid that they lost on their common jump. They were the others, babes compared to them, separate and apart. Not part of the family. The three of them hung back when they sat around the campfire telling stories of the good ol’ days. Sometimes Kate and Trip would wander off and take long walks to get away from the alienation that they felt.

Often they found themselves in each other’s arms. They weren’t proud of it, but some unknown force drew them together. Trip didn’t want to fight it. He loved her. She loved him. Yeah, they loved Tara and Corey, too, but Kate did things to Trip that no one else could do. He never felt as strong or as needed as he did when she wrapped around him, tiny, frail, and so easily broken.

It hit him like a ton of bricks. He would never feel her in his arms again. He staggered. Dirk helped him sit down, and he went to light the campfire with the firewood that the others had gathered.

They huddled around the light as darkness settled over them. Mel served rations and campfire coffee.

“What will we do without Kate?” Pinky asked. “She was the team leader.”

“We still have Corey,” Tara answered and put her hand on Corey’s leg. “He’s a team leader too.”

“We still have Kate,” Corey said and chucked his coffee dregs into the fire. It sputtered emphasizing his words.

“What?” Dirk looked up, nonplussed.

“Corey, I know what I saw.” Trip begged him to stop this nonsense.

“Trip, I know what I feel.” He pinned Trip with his intense glare.

“What, Corey, what do you feel?” Pinky leaned toward him.

“She’s alive, Eunavae. I know it.”

Pinky gasped. “Are you sure?’

“Completely and totally sure,” he said.

“Well, what are we waiting for? Let’s go get her.” Donnie and Mel jumped up.

“Sit down!” Dirk growled. “What are you talking about, Corey? Trip said he saw her dragged into the tar pit.”

Mel and Donnie did not sit down. They glared at Dirk mutinously.

“I did. I would go back and pluck my eyes out not to have seen it! But I did. She’s dead. She hung limp, lifeless from his jaws even before he dragged her into that cesspool.” Trip hurled his cup at a tree, and it pinged off into the woods.

“I know she isn’t dead. I can still hear her.”

They considered Corey with varied expressions. The old fogies seemed convinced. Dirk and Trip were the only sane ones left.

“Hear her.” Trip broiled with anger. “HEAR HER!” He erupted from his camp chair. “What the hell, Corey? Are you insane? You aren’t the only one who loved her! We all loved her! I loved her! Why can’t we hear her? I know you don’t want to accept it and if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t either! I’m sorry that you saw us…right before…I’m sorry that you didn’t get a chance to say goodbye…like…but…” Trip choked on his words. Slamming his mouth shut, he stopped.
Wrong. It’s just digging deeper into Corey’s pain.
He didn’t want that.

Trip respected Corey, a lot, like a brother. He had this pure heart that Trip couldn’t understand. He never seemed jealous when Kate and Trip would go off together. Trip caught glimpses of his sadness, but he acted like he wanted Kate to explore her feelings. As though he wanted her to get Trip out of her system, so he tolerated her attachment to him. Or, maybe Corey cared more about her safety than his own feelings. Weirdly devoted to her that way, Corey loved without expecting it in return. Trip couldn’t grasp that. Though he had no right, he burned with jealousy every time Kate and Corey touched.