Chapter Fourteen
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brIA ALTERNATED BETWEEN walking and sprinting as she continued searching for a new place to call home.
Darkness fell and she was tired, hungry and needed to find a bathroom.
She’d left the suburbs behind and was in a more rural area now.
There were still far too many houses around to suit her.
She needed a place that was hidden from view where no one could find her.
“It’s going to have to wait until the morning,” she grumbled, then stopped to peer around.
Only one of the homes in the nearby area had lights on inside.
“They need to close their drapes,” Bria said.
“Desperate survivors will break in and steal every scrap of food they have if they know someone is living there.”
Shaking her head that people could be so reckless, she trudged towards one of the other houses.
She couldn’t detect anyone inside as she rounded to the back of the property.
The back door was locked up tight. She rammed it with her shoulder and the lock broke.
Catching the door before it could slam into the wall, Bria cautiously sniffed the air.
“Good, no rotting bodies,” she murmured.
The cambion stepped inside and shut the door, then wedged a chair under the handle. It wouldn’t stop someone who was determined to get inside, but it might slow them down a bit at least.
“Not that I’m paranoid or anything,” Bria said.
She’d half-expected Urzra to come after her, but the knight hadn’t appeared on her radar so far.
“Maybe he finally got the hint,” she said as she searched for the bathroom.
“Just because we find each other attractive doesn’t mean I’m going to follow him around like a lost puppy. ”
Using the facilities, she was glad for her excellent night vision as she searched the pantry.
She found some canned fruit and took her can opener out of her duffle bag.
Weariness dragged at her from her long trek as she ate the meal.
Drinking it down with a bottle of water, Bria wished she was back in her home.
“I hate this,” she complained plaintively.
“I just want things to go back to the way they were.”
Grief that her old life was now behind her had her eyes misting up. Bria refused to cry. She was tougher than that. She hadn’t cried when her mom had kicked her out when she’d been sixteen and she wasn’t going to sob like a baby now.
“Why do I have to give up my house?” she asked as her grief turned to anger.
“Deumos and his goons saw me leave in the boat. They won’t expect me to ever return to Block Island.
My father can’t sense me unless he’s within a few hundred yards of me.
I can wait a few weeks, then sneak back and resume my normal life. ”
Instantly relieved at that assumption, Bria’s tension began to ebb. She wished she hadn’t walked all this way now, but maybe it was for the best. She would be able to search the area for supplies and maybe even find seeds for her garden in some of the abandoned properties.
“The greedy sisters will no doubt raid my garden while I’m gone,” Bria said sourly.
“I’ll need to replant the veggies, but summer will mostly be over by the time I return.
” She had enough food stocked for winter in her pantry, but it still galled her that she’d had to flee in the first place.
Her neighbors would find her supplies and she would have to steal them back if she could.
Tired enough to lie down on the couch after she turned the dusty cushions over, Bria only removed her shoes, just in case she needed to leave in a hurry. She had trouble drifting off to sleep and finally sank into a dream after midnight.
In her dream, she was back in the past. She was on her way home from high school and she was only fifteen years old.
Her powers had kicked in a couple of years before and she didn’t have control of them yet.
Bria had thought she was going crazy at first when she’d changed her mom’s rage into hysterical laughter.
Then it had happened again and again whenever someone was angry with her.
She’d used it at school when a couple of mean girls had cornered her.
They’d taunted her because of her cheap clothes and not knowing who her father was.
Bria’s magic had encompassed the teens and they’d suddenly become empathic and compassionate.
It hadn’t lasted long, but they’d avoided her afterwards.
A boy a year older than Bria had started stalking her. He’d followed her home one day and she was reliving that episode now. Even knowing what was coming, Bria couldn’t change the outcome. She had no control of her own body as she hurried towards the crappy apartment she lived in.
Movement in the corner of her eye had her whipping her head around.
The boy crashed into her hard enough to knock the wind out of her.
His arms came around her and he dragged her into an alley.
He’d been nearly six feet tall and twice her weight.
If she’d been a normal human, he would have easily molested her as he’d intended.
“Keep quiet and I won’t mess up your pretty face,” he warned her, covering her mouth with his hand while he fumbled with the zipper of his jeans.
Bria’s wind had returned and she’d sucked in a breath.
Her power had lashed out and he’d frozen.
His eyes had glazed over as his lust had turned to revulsion.
Stumbling back with a look of utter disgust in his eyes, he wiped his hands on his jeans as if he’d touched something rotten.
He’d left, glancing over his shoulder to make sure she wasn’t following him.
Even after her magic had worn off, he’d never tried to approach Bria again.
Word had somehow spread at her high school that he’d developed mental problems after their clash.
She’d become a pariah, as if she was the one who’d done something wrong.
It had been a relief when she’d dropped out of high school a year later.
Eventually leaving that town had been the best thing that had ever happened to her.
Bria’s dream switched from scene to scene without her control. She watched through her own eyes when her mom finally snapped. “Get out, you evil little freak!” she screamed at her. “I never want to see your horrible face ever again!”
Even in the dream, pain suffused her at the rejection. Bria had always known her mom was troubled, but she’d loved her anyway, or she’d tried to. She turned away and stumbled out through the door with only the clothes on her back.
The next scene was of her running over to an elderly woman who’d fallen over in a parking lot. Bria helped her to her feet and over to her car. “You look a little bit lost, dear,” she said. “Do you have anywhere to stay tonight?”
“No,” Bria replied, feeling dejected and hopeless. “My mom kicked me out a few days ago. I’ve been living in an empty building.”
“Oh, that won’t do,” the old lady said compassionately. “Why don’t you come home with me? I have plenty of room.”
Once again, Bria scanned the woman’s soul and saw it was white. She could trust this stranger not to hurt or abuse her. “I’ll pay you back,” Bria promised, even though she didn’t have a dollar to her name.
Her life had changed with that one act of kindness. Everything had worked out great after she’d been taken in. For eight years, Bria had finally known peace and stability.
Her dream changed once more and she was being hunted by five monsters with red-tinted eyes. Urzra appeared from out of nowhere and stood between her and her sire. His determination to protect her was written in every line of his incredible body.
Turning over on the couch, Bria thought she sensed the knight for a moment, but shrugged it off and went back to sleep.