Page 26 of Come Fill Me

She didn’t back off. “I deserve an answer. What happens after I heal your brother? Are you going to let me return to myfather, or are you going to keep me a prisoner so I can heal others of your clan?”

He matched her frown. “Would you rather see them die?”

“Are you nuts?” she snapped. “I don’t want anyone to die; that’s the point. Whether I heal your men or Carreon’s, the outcome is always the same, isn’t it? Endless fighting and more death. Not everyone wants carnage, Zeke. Maybe if I don’t heal anyone that will change.”

She couldn’t be that naïve. “For who?” he countered. “Carreon? Me? The men who fight with us, or the children and women he targets?” Zeke cupped her chin in his hand, forcing her to look at him. “Would you let those innocents die? Would you have refused to help my daughter all in the name of peace that Carreon and the goons that follow him will never give?”

Her mouth trembled. “How can you even ask that? If I could have saved Gabrielle, I would have. I can’t begin to tell you how sorry I am for your loss. But you’re wrong about my people. Not all of them are like Carreon. They regret allowing him to come to power. This has to end. I refuse to be a party to it any longer.” She pulled away from him, wrapping her arms around herself.

The pose she struck did little to enhance her determination or to hide her nudity. If anything, she appeared more vulnerable than Zeke could have imagined.

He found it difficult to believe she’d ever been Carreon’s woman. How could she have craved the man, given what he’d done to his own people and her father? What lies had Carreon told Liz to have brought her to his side?

What did it matter? She was with him now, where Zeke intended for her to stay.

Liz must have read his expression because she scooted farther away, her breasts jostling with that and the van’s movements.

“I’ll heal Jacob as you want,” she said, “but then I have togo back. I have my father to think of as much as you do your brother.”

Zeke wasn’t about to comment, wanting her to believe whatever made her feel good.

She glared at him. “No matter how miraculous you believe my gift is because it saved you, it’s not what you think. It could kill as well as heal. There are things about it even I don’t know.”

“What are you talking about?”

“From the time I was little, my father warned me to be careful with it. When I asked him why, he’d always hold back, telling me that I had an obligation to heal only those I believed could survive. No one else. I still don’t know what he meant. I asked him if he was talking about brain damage. He’d never give me a straight answer. To this day, I don’t know what my gift will do exactly.

“I’ve learned through trial and error that it does speed healing, but it won’t cure in the normal sense. I can’t lay my hands on someone with cancer or any other terminal illness and rid them of the disease. I can only heal the damage for a short time, after which it may come back.”

Instinctively, Zeke touched the healed wounds on his chest. “Are you saying what you fixed on me tonight won’t last?”

“That’s different. Bullets, not disease, nearly killed you. With the appropriate medical care, you would have survived. All I did was speed up the healing process, as I’ve said.”

“Without an operating room or surgeons. Trust me, your gift is remarkable.”

“Haven’t you heard anything I’ve said? I loathe it as much as you do yours. It’s brought us to this. You almost dying. Your brother injured. My father a prisoner. My mother dead.”

Another surprise he hadn’t expected. “Was Carreon responsible?”

“I don’t know. Maybe.” She pressed the heel of her handagainst her forehead. “It looked like any other auto accident; at least that’s what the cops claimed. She was out during a storm. Her car hydroplaned and went off the road. By the time my father got there, he couldn’t save her. What we have isn’t perfect, Zeke. Neither are your visions if they didn’t warn you well ahead of time what Jacob intended to do tonight.”

He argued, “You’re here, so it worked out. It will work out.”

“You can’t know—” She stopped as the van slowed, and the moon disappeared, throwing the back of the van into darkness.

“What happened?” she asked. “Where are we?”

A tunnel built into the side of the mountain. A place so hidden and inaccessible, Carreon’s men couldn’t find it.

“My people’s stronghold,” he said.

Chapter Five

A loud metal clang sounded from the rear of the van, followed by a whir Liz couldn’t identify. New sounds emerged, reminiscent of bulbs popping in old-time cameras. With them, a blaze of light lit up the van’s windows.

She stared at what looked to be steel walls and the line of blue-white tubes on either side of them, emitting enough illumination to make her squint. The vehicle’s tires whooshed over the suddenly smooth road. Those sounds and the surroundings reminded Liz of tunnels she’d driven through when visiting New York and other major cities.

However, this was the desert, with nothing but desolation for miles. “Are we going underground?”

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