Page 4 of Deep Within Me

He saw a woman’s hand, her skin color rich, familiar. Liz? Within her fist, she held a slender onyx knife with a metal button on the side of its hilt. A switchblade? Blood dirtied its steel edge. Whose?

Carreon’s face materialized into the scene, similar to when a photograph develops. Pleasure hooded his pale-blue eyes. His broad smile revealed his satisfaction. Had he killed someone else? Taken them prisoner?

Zeke blinked rapidly, needing to see more. Another man filled his vision, younger than Carreon, possibly late twenties. Dirt from the desert coated his denim jeans and jacket. Wind tugged at his dark hair, worn longish. Anticipation tightened his handsome features.

Wait!Zeke’s mind shouted.

Whorls of dust obscured the young man’s image before Zeke could study it. New pictures flashed in his mind, these at record speed. He saw the inside of the vehicle Liz had taken to Carreon’s stronghold, its dashboard illuminated though no one was inside. Next, he saw Carreon’s lieutenants, each in their early thirties, the same as him. Something wet shone dully on their black clothes. Blood? Their vehicle’s dashboard illuminated their faces, their features taut with fear and hate.

The one in the passenger seat kept looking at his side-view mirror as though he feared someone following them. The driver divided his attention between what lay in front and to the left. His pitiless stare turned to surprise then renewed rage at whatever he’d spotted.

The man in the backseat leaned up, his mouth forming the question,“What?”

Coming, coming, coming,Zeke’s thoughts warned.

He blinked at a flash of light. A gun’s report. A thin line of smoke rose from its muzzle. The Jeep’s windshield cracked, itsglass webbing in all directions. Blood bloomed on a woman’s torso. Liz?

No.

“Zeke?”

Dumbly, he regarded her hand on his arm. His vision had faded as quickly as it had arrived, much of it already gone, which left only snatches of what he’d seen. Shifting the Jeep into reverse, he turned it around in a tight circle.

Liz gasped. “What are you doing?”

“Taking cover.”

“From what?”

Carreon’s lieutenants. During tonight’s battle, Zeke’s clan had killed most of the men. They’d taken two prisoner, with three having escaped. They were heading this way. He didn’t know how, given the hidden route. He wasn’t even certain if his vision was correct. It hadn’t always been in the past. However, he couldn’t discount any of it now.

“Tell us what you saw,” Liz cried.

Her father leaned up. Just as Carreon’s man had in Zeke’s mind.

“You had a vision?” Munez asked.

Zeke nodded, unwilling to tell either of them the extent of what he’d seen. He drove the Jeep toward a series of boulders and parked it behind the largest then grabbed his assault rifle.

“Wait.” Liz dug her fingers into his arm, just below his tribal band tattoo. It formed a stylized snake curled around the eye of an eagle that designated him as a prophet. The snake’s head was gone, cut out by Carreon as a trophy when Zeke had lay dying.

“What did your vision show you?” she asked. “Where are you going?”

Zeke shook her off. “Get on the floor.” He spoke to her father. “You too.”

Liz didn’t move. “Why?”

“Just do it,” Zeke insisted.

She reached into the backseat for another weapon. “I’m coming with—”

“I saw you bleeding, killed in the crossfire,” Zeke blurted then lied. “Your father too. Neither of you able to save the other. My vision showed Carreon’s men taking me prisoner, torturing me so I’d tell them the future. Do you want that?”

Her mouth trembled. “No.”

“Then do as I say and get on the floor.”

She looked torn between arguing and leaving him to fight Carreon’s men alone. “Please come back,” she whispered.

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