Jill Shalvis - Out of This World

“I mean,” I called out, “that we’ll get nowhere. We’ll stand around looking stupidly at each other, and no swap will get made.”

“Well, that’s not exactly true,” Marilee said.

Ah hell. More stuff I didn’t know. I debated with myself, because how much worse could this get? Answer: a lot worse. I glanced at Marilee, and lifted a brow.

“Never mind.” She lifted her hands, waved me on. “It probably won’t matter. You just go ahead.”

Ah hell. “Tell me.”

“Well, when the abilities are taken without permission, it’s dangerous for the person they’re taken from. They can get really sick, even die.”

I stared at her. “Did that happen to you?”

“No.” She looked…guilty? “It didn’t happen to me.”

“Why not?”

“Because at the time,” she said very quietly, “I, um…” She sighed. “I wanted my ability stolen.”

“What?”

“I sold out, okay? I was in debt and having some trouble. When the pirates came, I made a deal. I took cold hard cash. I’d give anything to be able to take it back, but I can’t. It’s done. But the truth is, my ability wasn’t stolen; I sold it.”

I stared at Axel, who was not looking shocked by this revelation. “And you?”

“I gave it willingly to stay here with Marilee.”

Marilee gasped. “You did? Oh, Axel, that’s the most romantic thing anyone’s ever done for me.”

“And dangerous,” I said.

“So dangerous!” Marilee couldn’t take her eyes off Axel. “My cousin’s brother’s best friend’s fiancé went into a coma on her wedding day when their abilities were stolen! I can’t believe you did that for me.”

A coma. God. “Your cousin. Did she ever wake up?”

“Four years later, to find out that her best friend had married her fiancé. So you want to be real careful here, because believe me-” She squeezed Axel’s hand. “A good fiancé is damn hard to find.”

“I’m not paying anyone cold hard cash, even if your ability comes wrapped in pure gold,” Curly yelled, lifting his gun again. “So don’t even think about it. I don’t care who ends up in a coma, as long as I walk away with the strength ability.”

“Yeah, you’re going to need that brawn,” Kellan muttered, “to combat the lack of brains.”

“Hey!” Curly leveled his gun at Kellan. “That wasn’t nice!”

I leaped forward in my haste to get between the two. “No shooting, remember?”

“Too late,” Curly sneered.

“What do you mean?” My heart kicked, but everyone was here and accounted for…

“Nothing,” Kel said grimly.

“Let’s do this,” Curly said.

“You’re going to take the ability and go, right?” I pressed him. “You’ll leave all of us alone?”

“The moment the swap is made,” he said, and showed those disgusting teeth. “Scout’s honor.”

Uh-huh. And his honor meant so much. “No shooting, right?”

“Tell him,” Curly said, and gestured at Kellan.

I looked at Kellan, who shook his head. “Bad idea, Rach.”

“It’s the only idea we’ve got.” I looked at Serena and Axel. “You willing?”

They nodded. I had no idea what would happen to them without their abilities, but being alive seemed far more important at the moment.

The faintest purple light tinged the edges of the night sky now.

Dawn.

I turned to Axel. “What exactly happens at dawn?”

He glanced at the pirates, then whispered, “Well, you might have noticed their increased desperation and violence.”

“What happens at dawn, Axel?”

“They have to leave or risk getting stuck here.”

“Then why aren’t we stalling instead of bargaining?”

“Because they have guns,” he reminded me. “Big ones.”

Oh yeah.

“Lead the way!” Curly yelled. “To the clearing right now!”

Axel looked at Marilee, who as the new expedition leader lifted her chin regally and took the front.

We all followed, tromping through the woods in eerie silence. Even the birds were quiet today, and when I looked up, I had to execute a double take.

The crystal-clear night had shifted. The massive black, swirling cloud was back, building steam that made me gulp.

The wind had picked up, too, just like the last time, and as we finally stepped into the clearing, the first few drops of rain began to fall.

My heart kicked into gear.

With every fiber of my being, I felt…terrified. No other word described the feeling gripping me. There were so many variables and what-ifs that my brain couldn’t even take it all in. It didn’t help that the first lightning bolt was still far too fresh in my mind. It hadn’t been a piece of cake. It had hurt like hell, and all that confusion afterward, the mind-numbing fear…I didn’t want to go through it again.

Knowing how dangerous it all was didn’t help, nor did the knowledge that doing this again could send me spiraling into a coma-

I looked over at Kel, who looked bleak, his expression closed, and my heart lurched even more.

Then he staggered in a rare misstep, and I reached for him.

“I’m fine,” he said, shaking me off, not looking fine at all, but deathly pale.

Curly gestured for us to go ahead of him into the clearing, and when we both hesitated, he lifted his gun at me. “I’ll shoot her this time.”

“This time?” I looked at Kel, and I just knew. I searched him with my eyes-His dark shirt. God. I ran my hands over him and found the stickiness at his shoulder, down his side. “Oh my God! You were shot!”

“Just in the shoulder,” he said, jaw clenched so tightly he had to fit the words through his teeth.

I thought I’d been terrified before, but now it raced like ice up my spine. “Kel-”

“Later.” He moved into the clearing, but just as he did, a harsh gust of wind blew through, knocking us all into each other and down to our knees.

The clouds seemed to swell, then they lowered, surrounding us in an inky blackness that blocked out the growing dawn.

Someone gasped, and the rain began to fall in earnest, soaking into my clothing in a blink. It was going to happen any second now, I knew it.

Kellan was ahead of me. He’d pulled out the Blackberry and was crawling into the clearing, his face tight with the pain of the gunshot wound and, undoubtedly, fury with me.

Now, Rach. Now or never. Trying to be careful with his shoulder, I jumped on him, and with the element of surprise on my side, took him down to the ground and grabbed the Blackberry from him.

While he groaned and ate dirt, I sprinted up and into the clearing myself.

“Rach, no!” he yelled after me, and snagged my ankle so that I got only one foot inside before the huge CRACK sounded, and with it, screams.

Marilee?

Serena?

Actually, maybe it was me, because it hurt like hell, but only for a second, because as before, everything faded to black.

At least I alone got into the clearing, I thought with relief.

Kel was safe…

I woke up to the feel of something wet dripping on my face, and every single inch of my body screaming with agony. I gasped with it, tensing.

“Jesus, Rach. Talk to me.”

At the sound of Kel’s voice, low and rough with urgency, I felt my heart tighten. I didn’t have to look at him to remember everything about him: how his eyes could see through to my soul, how his skin smelled, how yummy he always tasted, how he sounded when he was buried inside me and so turned on-

“Rach.”

I opened my eyes. I was cradled against his chest. He was a little sweaty and a whole lot wild with worry.

And shot! God, let’s not forget he was wearing a bullet, one he’d taken because I’d brought him here. “I’m fine. It’s you-”

“Shh.” He just shook his head, and held me. “Give me a minute.”

I needed one, too. Already the pain was fading, and I ran my hands over him, wanting to cry when he sucked in a pained breath. “Oh, Kel.”

“It’s not bad.”

A lie.

I was smoking again, which reminded me. The abilities.

The swap.

I stared up at the sky.

Just blue. Plain blue.

I focused on the tree above us. Just a trunk with branches and pine needles, still dripping from the deluge of rain I barely even remembered.

I couldn’t see through the tree trunk, or into the individual water droplets. In fact, I could see through exactly nothing.

I was back to normal, though even the word “normal” seemed, well, abnormal.

I looked at Kel. It was just him, beautiful, passionate, wonderful Kel. I looked at his bloody shirt, but I couldn’t see through it. Still, somehow I knew his heart was beating steady as a drum. “I’m not in a coma, right? Or…dead?”

His eyes flashed with emotion, and his arms tightened on me. “Neither, though I might kill you myself for that little stunt.”

Stunt? Stunt?

“I mean, what the hell were you thinking, pushing me aside and leaping headfirst into that bolt of lightning?” he demanded.

“I was thinking of you.”

He just kept staring at me as if he couldn’t believe I was all in one piece and unhurt. “You might have gotten yourself killed.”

“But she didn’t,” Serena pointed out, peeking over Kel’s shoulder at me. William nodded with her. “No one did, except the bad guys.”

“Right,” Kel said, so much of his soul and gut and heart in his gaze, I could scarcely breathe. “And you’re alive,” he whispered. “Alive is damn good.” He hauled me against him again, then sucked in harshly.

“The bullet exited,” Marilee said, looking down at him. “Painful, I’m sure, but you’re not still sporting steel, so that’s a relief.”

“Wait.” I blinked, looked at all of us. Me, Kel, Axel, Marilee, Serena and William. “Where are Curly and Moe?”

Serena and William looked at Marilee.

Marilee looked at Kel.

Kel looked at Axel.

Axel spread his hands out in front of him. “They won’t be bothering anyone anymore.”

“Because…?”

“Let’s just say, I’m more handy with this thing than I let on.” Axel lifted the Blackberry. “I sent them to another plane.”

“It was very impressive,” Serena said.

I looked at Kellan, who was…squinting. “Your eyes,” I said very softly. “Why can’t you see?”

“Because he threw himself in front of you,” Marilee said.

“Marilee,” Kel said in soft warning. “Don’t.”

“Don’t what? Sing like a canary?” She shook her head. “And he took that lightning bolt right in the chest-”

“Damn it, Marilee.”

“Shut up, Kellan. Rachel, I’m telling you, it’s a miracle he’s alive. It was the bravest thing I’ve ever seen anyone do.”

I couldn’t tear my eyes off Kellan as it all sank in. He’d been the one to take the direct hit, not me. Which meant…I looked at William and Serena, who looked…normal. Their odd glow hadn’t returned. I looked at Axel, who’d been able to handle Moe and Curly. At Marilee, who’d taken one look at Kel’s dark shirt and been able to tell the bullet had exited.

“You two!” They had the glow! “You got the abilities in the swap!”

Marilee smiled grimly. “Accidentally, I assure you. When we saw Kellan leap forward, we went after him and got in the way.”

“So you got your abilities back!”

“Well, not ours.” Axel looked at Serena and William, who smiled serenely, still happy without their abilities.

Axel hugged Marilee. “And we’ll owe all of you for this forever.”

Marilee sniffed, and buried her face in Axel’s chest. “God, it’s good to be back, to be going back.”

“You’re going back?” I asked.

Looking thrilled, they both nodded. “But no worries about Hideaway.” Axel said. “William and Serena want to run it, and trust me when I say this; You’ll be better off with them doing so.”

Serena and William stood arm in arm, looking ecstatic.

“You do?” I asked. “You really want to stay here?”

“So much,” William said.

I was happy for them, but…I turned to Kellan, who was clearly hurting like hell and looking worse for wear. “I wanted to step in front of you, damn it.” I fisted his shirt in my hands and hauled him nose-to-nose with me. “I wanted to prove how much I love you.” I let out a huff of air. “Damn it.”

“You already said that.” He was staring at me, his gorgeous eyes blinking as slowly as an owl’s, trying helplessly to focus in.

I sighed, and reached into his breast pocket for his glasses. Opening them, I stuck them on his nose. “There.”

He pushed them up higher. “Thanks. But back to that other thing.”

“Which? Where you stole my thunder?”

“No, the other part. The I-love-you part.”

“Oh, Kel, I do. I love you so much. But for once, I wanted to put my heart on the line. I wanted to be the one to risk something.”