Blooming in the Wild Page 0,92

he knocked the gun aside just as it went off, bullets spraying from the short barrel. Ice bit through Bella again, this time her thigh. She swayed, sucking in a deep breath to draw the power in and fight off the pain that burned now, tearing at her with gnashing teeth.

The black man leapt, and Joel went down, his long legs flying out from under him.

Bella hit Baldy with a blinding gust of blossoms and branches, making him stumble backward, weapon silent.

Gunfire rang out again, this time from behind Bella. A hole in the center of his forehead, Baldy sprawled backward, falling over Joel and his struggling opponent, and Bella struck him with another blast of branches, this time knocking him into the water.

Rolling over, Joel punched his opponent, and the man went limp, arms and legs sprawled on the sand.

“Bella! You’re hit.” Joel leapt to his feet, his gaze on Bella. But a fifth burst of gunfire rattled through the clearing. Joel jerked, and then fell to one knee, his eyes wide with shock, mouth opening as he lifted a hand to his side.

“No.” Bella’s voice thundered through the air. She slashed her hands toward the gunman who had just emerged from the raft, the slender bartender from the yacht. He screamed as two vines slashed down and wrapped around him, dragging him up into the trees with Li.

“You!” Bella turned on Camille, who crouched in the center of it all, watching in panic as her men fell. “You dare to touch my kane nohea. Now you’ll die.”

“No—no, I’m not done here,” Camille cried. She turned, searching wildly for her men.

Another burst of gunfire blasted from behind Bella, and Camille screamed, clutching her arm. Blood seeped from her fingers. “Kill her,” Camille shrieked again.

She turned toward the trees as two Hawaiians emerged from the trail, weapons at the ready. Eddy and Kobe eyed Bella and the destruction around her with wide eyes.

“You see,” Camille to Bella cried over the wind. “You’ll die here and take your powers with you. And then I’ll go after the rest of your family. Kill her!”

Kobe raised his weapon, but Eddy backed away, shaking his head.

Bella ignored the gun pointed at her. She cast one look of grief back at Joel, who lay on the lava, his face white, bright blood staining his shirt and the ground underneath him. He was gone, gone.

“So, it shall be as you wish. But you…” she told Camille. “You will share my fate, as Na’alele shared the fate of her betrothed.”

And then she stretched up her arms to bring the forest down around her. “Arise, Pele,” she called, her voice soaring above the forest and into the mountain waiting above. “Arise, mother of Hawaii, and destroy your enemies!”

A great roar of sound built around them as the forest came to life. The trees and foliage strained at their foundations to free themselves and come to her.

The ground shook. A great fig toppled, crashing to the earth and burying Eddy under it. Vines lashed through the air.

Gunfire rattled again. Kobe jerked backward, hit, but his weapon fired as he fell. Icy-hot projectiles slapped at Bella, striking her in the side. She wavered and then kept her feet, bringing up her hand to point at Camille, who shrank back in fear, finally recognizing Bella’s power as the forest shuddered up from its foundations.

“Die,” Bella said. “Die, and all your schemes for my Hawaii with you.”

Camille opened her mouth, but red blossoms sprouted on her white jacket. She wavered and then fell to the rocks, her eyes going blank. Leaves and branches, bits of dead blossoms showered down on her body.

Bella turned to find another man behind her, weapon in his hands. But she knew this one. Through the streamers of gold whipping around her, from her, she focused what was left of her concentration on him.

Frank threw down his weapon. His face was white with shock, but he faced Bella, his hands outstretched in entreaty. “U’oki,” he shouted. “Stop this, Bella.”

Bella shook her head, tears spilling from her eyes as she looked over at Joel’s prone form on the beach. “Nô ho‘i lohi,” she mumbled. “Too late.”

As hot blood pulsed from her wounds, she turned and staggered through the storm to her lover’s body. Her grief howled, and with it the furor of flying vegetation around her. Dropping to her knees beside Joel, she pulled him into her arms and bent her head to lay her cheek on his. She