God. Not today.'
Her hands were at her sides, and as they slowly lifted she appeared to be inside a bubble of shifting, sparking energies. Her energies. Sawyer's. DeMarco's. Tessa's. Ruby's. Cody's. And more.
Much, much more.
Lightning crackled in the sky above her. Then bolts of it struck her aura of energy, intensifying it in a wild explosion of sheer, raw power.
'Not today,' she repeated, and thrust her hands forward.
The sound was like an explosion. Was an explosion. A literal wave of incandescent energy surged forward from Dani and struck Samuel with the same kind of force he had used against Bishoptimes ten.
The stone column crumbled to shards and dust, and he lay among the shattered remnants. He wasn't dead, but his face was twisted with agony, blood trickled from his nose and mouth, and when he tried to lift his hands in another attack, it was clear he had nothing left. Not even sparks.
His hands trembled, then fell.
'Father!' Bambi stumbled from the small group of church members standing nearest the steps and knelt among the broken remnants of the stone column, cradling his head. 'Father'
Looking down at Samuel, DeMarco said calmly, 'I can read him now. It. There won't be another attack. Not today, at least. Maybe not ever.' He shifted his gaze to Dani. 'Nice shot.'
'Thank you.' She sagged, a little pale but composed. 'I'd been saving that up for a while. And I had a lot of help.'
A tall, whipcord-lean man emerged from another small knot of people and folded her in his arms. 'Jesus, I wish you'd stop doing this to me,' Marc Purcell told her.
'Hey, you hitched your wagon. Your choice. Don't blame me for the consequences.'
'Yeah, yeah.' He kissed her.
Even though all three were smiling at him, Sawyer made sure Tessa and Ruby and the boy were okay before turning quickly to start toward the ruined Jeep.
'Bishop'
To his astonishment, Bishop, unhurt, was hurrying toward the crumpled vehicle that still held a man in its deadly grip.
'Galen, are you all right?' he asked, reaching his team member.
'Of course I'm not all right. I don't know why you all think this dying shit is painless. Just because I can heal myself does
'It's amazing what you can hide,' Tessa said. 'What you can change. If you only know how.'
Indignant, Sawyer said, 'But why'd you hide that from me?'
'The same reason they hid it from me. I broadcast and Samuel was reading you. Either one of us would have given away the plan.' The thin voice caused all of them to jerk around, but Bishop was the first one to reach Hollis's side.
'Hey, boss,' she said, her voice still weak. She was lying as she'd gone down, motionless. But her eyes were openand were their normal blue color, if a bit darker than usual.
'Christ, Hollis,' Bishop muttered.
'Another fun new toy for me.' She winced and closed her eyes. 'Sorry busy now'
All Sawyer could think to say was, 'What the hell?'
Resting on one knee beside his team member, Bishop explained, 'Some mediums are healers.' The relief in his voice was obvious. 'The energies here must have triggered it in Hollis.'
'Good thing too,' she murmured.
'Will she be okay?' Sawyer asked.
'I think so.' Bishop put a hand on her shoulder for a moment and then rose to his feet. Leaving Quentin to work on extricating Galen from the Jeep's unloving embrace, he turned to face LeMott. Both men were expressionless, but the whitened scar on Bishop's cheek was as good as a neon sign.
'Senator, two people died today, and neither one of them had to. What the
'I'm sorry for them,' LeMott said, his tone flat. 'Especially Officer Keever. She was only supposed to relay information, you know.'
Sawyer took a step toward him, conscious once again of rage. 'Information? You were paying Robin to spy for you?'
'She had dreams of leaving this small town life.' LeMott shrugged. 'Dreams cost money. And I convinced her it was her chance to help you, Chief. To put Samuel away, once and for all. So she called me last night. To tell me what would happen here today.'
'You son of a bitch,' Sawyer snarled.
Bishop said, 'I'm sorry, Sawyer. We were all but certain that he had eyes inside your department. We just didn't know who it was.'
Sawyer turned his head to look toward Robin's lifeless body, then felt a hand slip into his. Tessa.
'I'm sorry,' she said quietly, her other hand still holding Ruby close to her side. 'We knew he'd go after Bishop and after me once he saw me with Ruby, but we didn't think he'd see anybody else as a threat. So we weren't protecting her. I'm so sorry.'
'Yeah.' His fingers tightened on hers. 'So am I. You said something about trophies?'
'He kept them in a space underneath the baptistery,' she said. 'Where he left Ruby.'
'Awful things,' the little girl with eyes that were old now said gravely. 'Locks of hair, bits of clothes and stuff.'
'DNA,' Bishop said. 'With that, we can nail him.'
Senator Abe LeMott laughed. 'You mean put him in prison? Allow him to live?'
'Justice,' Bishop said.
'You were willing to destroy him.'
'Yes,' Bishop admitted evenly. 'I was. And if in destroying his abilities we had killed him, I wouldn't have lost a night's sleep. But this way is the right way. His abilities are gone and he'll live the rest of his life in a cage. That's good enough for me.'
'But not for me.' LeMott turned his head to look at the broken remnants of the man who had been Adam Deacon Samuel and said simply, 'Viper.'
Still cradling Samuel's head against her, Bambi used her free hand and drew from underneath her long, prim skirt a gleaming knife. Without a moment's hesitation, she plunged it to the hilt in his chest.
Gazing steadily into his infinitely surprised eyes, her own icy, she said, 'Say hello to Lucifer for me. And tell him a whore never forgets how to fake it. You should know that. Right, Sammy?'
Samuel died without making a sound, his life taken by a woman very much like the one who had given it.
Bambi pushed herself away from his body. She left him lying there in the rubble as she got to her feet, saying calmly to Sawyer, 'It was self-defense, you know. Any jury will believe that.'
'I'll make sure they do,' LeMott said. He looked at Bishop. 'I was afraid that, in the end, you wouldn't be quite as ruthless as you're often painted, Bishop. So I had a backup plan.'
Epilogue
TESSA EASED Sawyer's office door closed and joined the others in the conference room of the police station. 'Ruby's asleep. Worn out.' Hollis shifted in her chair to look at a clock high on the wait murmuring, 'God, it's only a little after five. This day's gone on for a lifetime.' She was pale and obviously still in pain, but just as obviously well on her way to completely healing the damage Samuel had inflicted.
'On the plus side,' Quentin pointed out, 'you emerged with a fun new ability. Thank God. Be honestdid you know about it when you decided to face off with Samuel?'
'Wish I could say yes. It would have saved me a lot of being, you know, scared half out of my mind. But, no.
