Drake Sisters 03 - Oceans of Fire

curses burst from his mouth. He stepped forward and grabbed her braid, yanking her head back to press the muzzle of his gun between her eyes hard. Her heart stopped. Her gaze collided with a pair of midnight blue eyes, black with ice cold rage. There was a moment of absolute terror and then recognition fought its way into her brain. Her heart resumed its frantic pounding. She kicked out at him, suddenly furious herself, slapping the gun away from her face. “Get the hell away from me!”
    “Calm down. I’m not going to hurt you.” He tried to fend off the kicks to his shins. “Damn it, Abbey, what the hell are you doing here? Look at me! You know me. You know I would never hurt you. It’s over. You’re safe. I’m not going to let anything happen to you.”
    She choked back a sob and turned away from him, trying to regain control of herself. She hadn’t seen those eyes in four years. Aleksandr Volstov, Interpol agent and heart-breaker extraordinaire. He was the last person she expected to see here. The last person she wanted to confront when she was on the verge of hysteria. Damn him anyway. She had the right to be hysterical after he shoved a gun in her face.
    Avoiding looking at him, she crawled over to Gene again and pressed her hands to the wounds to try to stop the flow of blood. He was deathly pale, and his lungs were laboring for air.
    “Who did this, Abbey?”
    She didn’t look up. “Two men in a Zodiac. They took off out of the harbor and if you call the sheriff and coast guard, they may be able to catch them.“
    “Did you get a look at them?”
    “I’m trying to keep Gene alive and it takes concentration. I can’t answer your questions right now.”
    “That man lying there dead is my partner, Abbey. Who did this?” There was ice in the voice, a warning.
    She felt a shiver go down her spine but she kept her attention focused on the fisherman. “Call the coast Generated by ABC Amber LIT Conv erter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.html
    guard, and an ambulance. I doubt if they were stupid enough to take the speedboat out to open sea where they could be caught, but you might get lucky. There are a few caves along the coastline large enough to hide that small of a boat and it’s calm tonight, so if they know what they’re doing that’s where they’ll be.”
    Aleksandr crouched beside her and caught sight of the blood on her back and down the back of her leg.
    “You’re hurt!”
    “I’ve got to work on Gene,” she protested when he tried to tug her to him.
    “I’m sorry, lyubof maya , but this man cannot possibly live.”
    His gentle tone, a caress of black velvet, was almost her undoing and she turned on him, furious, fighting back tears.
    “Don’t you tell me he won’t live! The dolphins risked their lives for him and I’m not giving up. Just keep your enemies off my back while I do this.”
    It wasn’t fair that she was angry with him. And maybe she wasn’t. Her body was shaking with shock and overload of adrenaline. And she could feel her own wounds burning and throbbing. Mostly she felt fear for Gene and his family. She wasn’t Libby or Elle or even Hannah with their tremendous powers.
    Even Sarah would be better than Abigail, but she was all Gene had. “And don’t call me your love, either.
    I’m not your anything.”
    She raised her arms up over her head to bring the wind, to whisper a chant, a plea, a need for a joining, and she sent the wind out over the ocean to the cliff house where she knew her sisters waited. Where she knew, would always know, she was accepted, flawed or not, and they would always come to her aid when needed.
    She heard the sirens fast approaching. She heard the boom of the sea and the song of the whales and her own heartbeat. There was a rhythm of life there, an ebb and flow that was continuous and strong.
    And she found Gene’s heartbeat. Slow. Stuttering. Out of sync with the universal flow. “I’ve got you,”
    she whispered softly. “I won’t let you go.”
    Abigail didn’t have a first aid kit, but she had the Drake magic. It welled up like a fountain, a power from deep within her, fed by the wind and sea. She could feel herself connecting with Hannah and Sarah, feel strength pouring into her as she placed one palm over Gene’s head wound and the other over the small hole in his chest.
    Wind rushed up from the surface of the sea. Dolphins leapt and somersaulted. At a distance, several whales breached. Power crackled in the air