The Impossible Future: Complete set by Frank Kennedy (e novels to read online TXT) 📗

“This feels like the time when I knew I wanted to spend the rest of my life with you,” he said. “I was so scared it was a fantasy. Of course, you were in a medpod near death. So, it almost was.”

The flashback to Philadelphia Redux drew a twinkle in her eyes. God, he loved that twinkle. Waking up to it every morning was the greatest time in his life.

“How, Michael? How did you find me?”

“Long story short? I got hold of your address and walked over.”

She wiped her tears and draped her hands over his skull.

“You shaved your dreadlocks. You’re so much bigger.”

“What can I say? Trying out a new look. You like?”

“I’ll love you anyway I can have you, Michael. Always.”

Sam winced and grabbed her side. Her neck healed, with only a minimal scar visible, but the dried blood remained. She was not wearing the yellow dress from the ceremony. Instead, she was draped in a purple silk blouse, ending below her knees. A sickening thought chilled Michael.

“What’s wrong, Sam?”

“It’s my side and my back. I was burned pretty badly.”

Her eyes darted away then back to Michael. Her smile vanished.

“It was to be my wife’s,” James said.

The creature took a seat on the bed and studied the blouse.

“I tried to convince her to put away her Cossack playthings. I thought purple would be her color. It’s the color of royalty. But she refused. In many ways, she never left Ukraine.”

Michael despised this beast staring at Sam.

“She’s dead,” he said with satisfaction. “I watched her die.”

“I already knew.” He tapped his disfigured scalp. “I stopped hearing her. All their voices are silent now. Did you kill her?”

“No, James. The honor goes to Sam.” He kissed her. “Rayna never removed the knife. You did good.”

Sam didn’t seem to take much solace in her success.

“James, why did you shoot your boys?” Michael asked.

The creature shrugged. “So you would know where to find me.”

“Oh, you have got to fucking be kidding me. You sick mother …”

“And because if I didn’t, someone else would. At least the last thing they saw was their father’s face.”

Michael held Sam close.

“Right. And probably scared shitless when they realized their father was going to kill them. Tell me something, James. Do you know what’s happening out there? Who’s winning?”

“Sorry. I haven’t kept up with the news.”

“This war’s almost over. And guess what? The immortals are going to win. That means your brother and all those children are going to run the show around here. I reckon it ain’t gonna take long to forget you and your sorry lot. How does that look from the perspective of a god?”

Sam tugged at him. “Michael, please.”

He heard the fear in her voice.

“What is it, babe?”

“Look around, Michael.”

“What? What am I missing?”

She kissed him. “You. Me. Him.”

Shit. He so lost himself in Sam’s embrace that he forgot how this began. He forgot his mission.

James crossed his arms as he stood.

“We began together,” the creature said. “We end together.”

Michael reached for his rifle.

“Oh, no, you bastard. No chance.” He glanced at the closed front door. “Two of us are walking out of here alive.”

“You already saw how the rifle doesn’t hurt me.”

“Yeah, that was pretty damn impressive. But I’m betting you got your limits. I unload both of these suckers into you, those Jewels won’t be able to keep up.”

“Possible. But you’ll never have the chance to find out.”

“Let’s see about that right now. Huh, James?”

The creature walked away as if he didn’t have a care in the world.

“It has to end here, Michael. I explained this to Samantha. The three of us are impossible. We shouldn’t exist here.”

“Oh, I see. You’re sad you don’t get to play God anymore, but Sam and I will never die. Our love will literally last forever. So, you’re gonna take your ball and go home. About the size of it, big guy?”

The creature was silent as he returned to the cribs.

“They gave me everything, Michael. Now look at me. Even if I wanted to live, who would worship this?”

Michael turned to Sam. “Is this the kind of shit he was moaning about before I got here?”

“More or less.”

“You know what? This is some fucked up business right here. James, you are still the same whiny, self-loathing prick you were in Albion. There was a reason you could count your friends on two fingers. The whole school was not against you. Hell, half of them pitied you because of what you went through and might have been your friends, but you scared the shit out of them. You sulked, you made up weird fucking nicknames for them, you kept your head down whenever anybody tried to talk to you. They got to thinking you were a school shooter waiting to happen.

“And me? Dumbass that I am, I defended you. I said they didn’t know your heart. I said a dude couldn’t ask for a better friend. And I believed that shit. Hell, maybe we smoked too many joints together. I don’t know. The Jewels didn’t make you a god. They just gave you license to show off who you really are.”

The creature’s eyes turned orange.

“And who am I, Michael Cooper?”

“You’re a killer. You’re a monster. You gunned down your own sons, for God fucking sake!”

He moaned. “And what are you, Michael?”

It was the question Michael asked himself every day.

“Me? I’m a killer, too. The only way I was gonna take you down was to be like you. But I know what I am, and I know my heart. Sam is my heart. As long as I’m with her, I can find my way back to being