Red Queen

  “You know why I went back to her,” Jimmy said, annoyed.

  “I want to hear my father’s explanation,” I said.

  “We’re not sure but we can only assume the Lapras became aware of our genetic program. They might have tampered with Kari’s and Jimmy’s minds, just enough that Jimmy would choose the wrong time and the wrong girl to start dating.”

  “You make it all sound so calculated,” I said, and it was my turn to show bitterness. “I assume you married Mom because you were supposed to. Of course, that would explain why you couldn’t wait to dump her once I was born.”

  My father took a long time to answer.

  “I love your mother as much as you love Jimmy,” he said. “It broke my heart to leave her, and to be away from you in this world. I explained all this in witch world. I only did it because I knew the Lapras were watching me. It was the only way I could keep you safe.”

  “But you let Jimmy and me grow up in a town not far from their headquarters!” I snapped. “It makes no sense.”

  “On the contrary, it makes perfect sense when you realize that Apple Valley was the last place they would have thought to look for someone we were hiding.”

  “Because it is so close to their stronghold,” Jimmy said.

  “Exactly,” my father said.

  “But you said they found out about Jimmy, Kari, and me.”

  “They didn’t know about you while you were younger. Actually, there’s a chance they didn’t know about you until you got pregnant with Lara.”

  “What are you talking about? Did her conception send out some kind of signal?” I asked the question as a joke and was surprised when my father nodded seriously.

  “Her birth might have,” he said.

  Jimmy shook his head. “Jessie, have you even seen Lara? Are you sure she’s for real?”

  “I haven’t seen her. But I spoke to her on the phone. I heard her . . . cooing. She’s ours. I have no doubt about that.”

  Jimmy heard something in my voice. “But there’s a problem with her. What is it?”

  Neither my dad nor I wanted to tell him the truth.

  “The Lapras have kidnapped her as well,” I said.

  Jimmy looked deflated, disgusted. He pointed at my father. “Jessie told me a little about that Council you’re involved with. You’re supposed to be a bunch of superpowerful witches. But all I hear about is how you guys keep screwing up.”

  My father didn’t flinch at his accusations. “We have made mistakes. We’re not perfect. But we’re faced with a formidable foe. And if the Council has made mistakes, they’ve made them out of a desire not to interfere with humanity’s free will. Even when it came to you two. We put you near each other but we didn’t force you to fall in love. This might be hard to understand but a soul as bright as Lara couldn’t have entered this world except through a couple that was deeply in love with each other.”

  My father spoke with such conviction that neither Jimmy nor I felt we could challenge his last remark. But to be honest, I thought he was overly infatuated with Lara. My daughter was superior to others because her genes were better but she wasn’t some kind of goddess.

  “So your Council doesn’t want to risk me going through the death experience because I might die,” Jimmy said. “And if I die, there’s no one else around who can sleep with your daughter and create perfect babies.”

  “That’s one way of putting it,” my father said.

  “But you didn’t mind risking Jessie,” Jimmy said. “From what I heard, she could have died a dozen times while she was in your hands.”

  “No. That was the problem. She got out of our hands.”

  “I still think you were careless,” Jimmy said.

  “We did the best we could, but we were forced to risk activating Jessie’s genes because of what happened to Lara. Otherwise, I would have been happy to wait until you were both thirty years old. I want my daughter to go to college, to have a career. I want the same for you, Jimmy. But Lara came to this world when she wanted to come and with her she’s brought a magical light none of us can begin to understand.”

  “If she’s so special, why don’t the Lapras kill her?” Jimmy asked.

  “They might decide to kill her one day, if they discover they can’t control her. But for now they know she’s the only one who carries all ten of the witch genes inside her. They sense her power, and it’s a power they’d like to turn against us.”

  My cell phone rang. It identified the caller as Kari. I told the others who it was. My father told me to accept the call but not to stay on the line long. The Lapras might trace the call back to us. He also said to tell her I was alone, if asked.

  “Hello, Kari. This is a pleasant surprise,” I said, squeezing into the chair beside Jimmy. I wanted him to hear, or at least I thought I did.

  “I’m sure. Where are you?”

  “Why?”

  “I want to meet. We have things to discuss.”

  “Such as?”

  “Huck and Lara. You and Jimmy.”

  “Who’s Lara?” I asked.

  “Don’t play the fool, Jessie, it doesn’t suit you.” Kari paused. “Where do you want to meet? I can come to you.”

  “That’s not necessary.”

  “Just name the place and time.”

  “Really, Kari, this is a vacation weekend for me. Why should I waste part of it talking to you?”

  “Because I just saw Huck. And I can take Jimmy to see Huck if you bring him to see me.”

  Suddenly Jimmy was nodding his head vigorously. He gave me no choice. “The Mirage Café, in one hour,” I said and hung up.

  Jimmy’s hope was so great he was ready to explode.

  “Could it be true?” he whispered.

  “It’s obvious Kari has been contacted by the Lapras,” my father said. “That makes her the last person on earth you should see, Jimmy. Let Jessie go to the meeting alone. Kari just wants you there so she can manipulate you with the carrot of your son. But her real target is Jessie, and she’ll try to force you to force Jessie to do things that would be unwise.”

  “How can saving my son be unwise?” Jimmy asked.

  “If you show that you can be easily manipulated, you’ll put your son in greater danger,” my father said. “Please don’t take this the wrong way, but right now they see you as the weak link in our group. Don’t prove them right.”

  Jimmy stood angrily. “But you said it yourself—I’m not part of your group. I’m nothing. I can’t help protect Jessie in witch world, and now you’re telling me I can’t even see my son in this world. Well, to hell with you. Jessie doesn’t even know Kari. Four years of high school together and the two of them hardly said hello to each other. Well, I dated the girl, I had a child with her. I know how she thinks, and I can get way more out of her than Jessie can. That’s why I’m going with Jessie to this meeting.”

  “What if Jessie doesn’t want you to come?” my father asked.

  Jimmy stared at me, desperate, and I could see his heart pounding behind his eyes. “Would you stop me?” he asked.

  I felt trapped, cornered by love. There were few feelings in the world that were worse. “My father’s right. They’ll manipulate you to get to me. Then, who knows, we both might end up hurting Lara.”

  “I don’t know any Lara,” he said.

  “I do,” I replied, feeling the need to be blunt. “And right now she’s the most important person in the world to me. In both worlds.”

  Jimmy bowed his head. “Don’t do this, Jessie.”

  “I didn’t say I’d stop you from coming. I’d never force such a decision on you. All I’m saying is that I think my father’s right.”

  “You want me to stay here and do nothing?”

  “Stay here and help my father take care of Whip. Remember, you’re the one who insisted we bring him back to Vegas. When he wakes up, you need to question him further. He could know a lot more than we realize.”

  “Good speech,” Jimmy said. ?
??So you want me to stay here and be a babysitter while you run off into the mouth of danger.”

  “You know I can take care of myself.”

  “Please stop rubbing it in.” Jimmy turned toward the door. “The Mirage Café in one hour. I’ll see you there.”

  He left without saying good-bye.

  I feared it was something I was going to have to get used to.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  JIMMY AND I ARRIVED AT the mirage on time, although we came separately. Kari was late. She kept us waiting half an hour. During that time Jimmy and I hardly spoke. It was sad—Lara was his child as much as mine, but he felt no connection to her. Sure, intellectually he believed what I had told him, but his heart was fixed on Huck. Probably had been since the moment the child was born.

  Kari finally arrived. She was dressed in a short green skirt and a tight white blouse. The girl never missed a chance to show off her chest. She wore emerald earrings she could never have afforded. The jewelry just confirmed the fact that she had recently made new friends.

  She didn’t act nearly as dazed as she had the day before and I wondered how much of yesterday had simply been an act. She was very hard to read, even with my blossoming intuition. I wondered what abilities her witch genes related to. It was like someone had taught her how to erect a psychic wall.

  “You’re late,” I said flatly as Kari took a seat across from us. We had a corner booth, plenty of privacy. Both Jimmy and I were sipping large Cokes. With the summer heat, just walking from the parking lot had been enough to dehydrate us.

  Kari smiled faintly. “I’ve been busy.”

  “So it would seem,” I said. “Tell us about it.”

  “I’d much rather hear about your adventures.”

  I tapped the table impatiently. “You’re connected, I’m connected. What else is there to say?”

  “How did they connect you?” she asked.

  “Who’s they?” I asked.

  “Drop the innocent routine. We know you’ve been contacted by the Tar. You know I’m talking to the Lapras. There, Jessie, was that so hard? Now all our cards are on the table.”

  I was missing something. I sought to move carefully. “I assume the Lapras connected you the same way the Tar connected me,” I said.

  “No. I connected myself.”

  I snorted. “Like you would know how.”

  Kari turned to Jimmy. “After we buried Huck, I was in such pain, I couldn’t take it. My parents didn’t know what to do. They tried talking to me, took me to a psychiatrist. He gave me pills that were supposed to improve my mood. I tried telling him there was nothing wrong with my mood. My problem was my son was dead. He didn’t get me at all. I stopped seeing him, and my parents decided it might be best to leave me alone. That might have been a mistake, I suppose it depends on how you look at it. My mom has rheumatoid arthritis and keeps a bottle of painkillers hidden in her bedroom closet. OxyContin. She hates taking it but sometimes the pain gets to be too much.” Kari paused. “Like I said, my pain was too much for me to handle.”

  I understood in a flash. “You swallowed the bottle of pills. You overdosed.”

  Kari nodded. “I died, technically, the paramedics said that my heart had been stopped for at least fifteen minutes when they found me. I don’t know if they saved me or if a certain gene I was born with did. I only know when I woke up, it was like I was in another world.” She paused and her gaze focused even more on Jimmy. “A world where neither of us has a son.”

  Jimmy had heard enough. “I don’t care about that place. I care about here and now. Is Huck alive?”

  “Yes,” Kari said.

  “How long have you known?”

  “A couple of weeks.”

  “How come you didn’t tell me?” Jimmy demanded. “You knew what I was going through.”

  “How could I tell you? We had already buried him. You wouldn’t have believed me.”

  “That’s bullshit. I would have listened to anything you had to say when it came to our son.”

  Kari showed her bitterness. “Really? I think you had other things on your mind. Like how you could talk your darling Jessie into taking you back now that you no longer had any obligation to me.”

  Jimmy shook his head. “You’re twisting what happened. You’re putting all the blame on me.”

  “Who else should I blame? I watched as you two frolicked on the lake yesterday. I saw pretty much everything you did, and it sure as hell didn’t look like Ms. Witch Bitch sitting here had to talk you into dropping your trunks.”

  “You’re sick,” I said coldly.

  “No, Jessie, I’m pissed, and I have a right to be pissed. Last month he was sleeping with me and now he’s sleeping with you. Of course, we’ve all been through this before. It seems that even though our dear Jimmy comes well equipped with plenty of witch genes, when it comes to matters of the heart, he’s still like most guys. He thinks with his dick. Which means he’ll probably come running back to me pretty soon.”

  I smiled. “All you’ve got to offer is sex.”

  “No, Jessie, what I’ve got to offer is good sex.” Kari paused. “And a son. What do you have to say, Jimmy? Do you want to see your son?”

  Jimmy was on fire, but he managed to stay in control, to smolder. “When?” he asked.

  “Today if you want,” Kari said.

  “On what condition?” I asked.

  Kari leaned closer. “There’s only one. You both have to agree to come with me.”

  “Why does she have to come?” Jimmy demanded, and there was a faint—but savage—note to his voice that frightened me. It also worried me that he took her hand when she offered it.

  “Because she’s the queen bee,” Kari said, squeezing his fingers. “I gave birth to a beautiful, healthy boy who has five extraordinary genes in his DNA. He’s going to grow up to be at least as wonderful as his father. Ordinarily, the Lapras would be happy to welcome us into their fold. The only problem is Jessie’s daughter was born with ten genes.”

  “Lara was born perfect,” I said, pride in my voice.

  “Not totally perfect,” Kari snickered. “I heard through the grapevine that so far she’s been more trouble than she’s worth.”

  “She’s an infant,” I said. “She misses me.”

  Kari continued to hold on to Jimmy. “Huck misses us, Jimmy. I know you miss him. It was incredible to see him again. I got to play with him for an hour. I fed him, bathed him, and changed his diaper. He’s doing real good. He’s bright, happy, and healthy. I think he recognized me.”

  Jimmy nodded. “That’s good.”

  Kari continued. “He’s in a nice house twenty minutes from here. Up on a hill, it has a fantastic view of the desert. Because it gets a breeze, they hung these chimes on the back balcony that give off this intoxicating sound. We can stay there together, and you can see Huck all you want.”

  Jimmy stopped nodding and sat silent. Kari and I waited.

  “As long as Jessie comes with us,” he repeated as he gently undid Kari’s fingers and took his hand back. “I’m still not clear what she has to do with Huck.”

  “She has nothing to do with him,” Kari said angrily.

  “And everything,” I said sadly, putting an arm around his shoulder. Talk about pulling the guy left and right. “It’s Lara’s uniqueness that makes her the key to this situation. The Tar want to groom her for good. The Lapras want to use her for evil. But for now, both sides just want to keep her happy, and to do that they need me, her mother.”

  “She’s only a month old,” Jimmy said. “How can she know who you are?”

  “What can I say? She knows. But stop and consider what Kari’s offering you. It’s the classic devil’s bargain. Go along with the bad guys and they’ll give you what you want today. Just don’t ask any questions about tomorrow. Because you might discover that, down the road, you’re selling out your children’s souls.”

  “Screw their souls!” Kari erupted. “I’m trying to keep my son al
ive. That’s all you should be focused on, Jessie. I know they have Lara and so do you. I hope Jimmy does as well. Nothing you say means shit. They have the kids, they’re in control. We have to cooperate. It’s as simple as that.”

  “It’s not that simple,” I replied.

  “Liar. And who’s to say the Tar are better people than the Lapras? A few days ago we didn’t even know these two groups existed. For all we know, the Lapras are the good guys.”

  I spoke. “If they’re so good, why did they give you a dead baby and convince you that it was Huck and pat you on the back and tell you to go bury him?”

  “If the Tar are so great and almighty, how come they were unable to keep either of our kids from being kidnapped?” Kari replied.

  “ ‘Kidnapped’ is the word,” I said. “It’s what the Lapras do. They take what they want when they want it. That should tell you something about their moral compass.” I turned to Jimmy. “You can’t bargain with them. You know that in your heart.”

  He stared at me. “Are you saying you won’t go with me?” he asked softly.

  “I’m telling you it’s a bad idea.”

  He raised his hand. His tone appeared reasonable but there was plenty of room for danger in it. “That’s not what I’m asking. At the condo you said you wouldn’t force me to make a decision one way or the other.”

  “That’s right. I won’t force you. Go with her if you want.”

  “But you heard Kari. I can’t do that, not without you.”

  My lower lip trembled. “This is a mind-fuck, pure and simple. They’re trying to leverage you against me, and you were warned that they’d do that. Please don’t fall for it.”

  “Who warned you, Jimmy?” Kari asked casually. “Russ? I’m not sure if Jessie’s told you everything about him. Like how close the two of them really are.”

  I smiled at Kari. “Getting desperate, aren’t we? Jimmy knows I’d never cheat on him.”

  Kari met my gaze. “Are you sure?”

  “Yes,” I said.

  Kari shook her head and sat back. “Did Jimmy tell you the last time we had sex?” she asked.

  Jimmy’s gaze hardened. “Kari, you just played the wrong card. Suddenly, what Jessie’s saying, it’s beginning to make sense. You just reminded me how you like to operate.”