twenty five
“Where to now?” Viktor asked after we were back in his SUV. His entire mood had switched from pensive to almost exuberant. I blinked a few times not quite sure what to make of the sudden one eighty in his demeanor. “What’s with the face?” His brows drew together forming a line.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” I pulled on my seatbelt, trying hard to ignore him.
“I don’t get you.” He sighed and started his SUV. It rumbled to life. He hit the gas a few times—revving the engine.
“What’s there to get?” I asked, getting miffed all over again. I felt like a yo-yo. One moment he was pushing me away and the next he was pulling me back.
“Nothing,” he brooded and flipped on the heat.
“If it’s nothing why aren’t you saying anything again?” I held up my hands, warming them in front of the vent.
“I don’t know.” He shrugged. “It kind-of seems pointless at this juncture.”
My brows creased. “What is that supposed to mean?”
He turned and gave me a heated look. “You’re all over the place.”
Was I? “Yeah, well, so are you.”
He laughed and put his arm across the seat. “I guess I am, but it’s your fault.” His fingers were almost touching my shoulder.
“What?” My mouth dropped open in astonishment. “How so?” I finally managed.
“You run hot and cold.”
Do I? “I do not.”
“Yes you do.”
“This is a pointless conversation,” I muttered.
“I don’t think so.” His fingers inched closer.
“Well…let me…” My eyes locked with his and for one breathless moment I lost all coherent thought. A door slammed beside me and I turned. A man in a tan work coat was limping toward the hospital entrance. I turned back toward Viktor but now he was staring out the windshield at a car that just pulled into the parking lot across from where we were. “We should get out of here.” He put the SUV in gear, backed out of the parking space, and headed out toward the main road. Turning on his blinker, he stopped and made a right.
“Where are we going?” My house was in the other direction.
“I want to show you something.”
My stomach flipped nervously. “I can’t stay out late.”
“This won’t take long,” he assured me and kept driving further away from town. I recognized the road at once. I had come out this way with Vincent too “So, what grade do you think we got on our paper?” I asked. There wasn’t much to look at—just trees lined on either side that seemed to want to overtake the road.
“Can’t say.” He lifted his shoulders. “You never know with the turtle.”
I gaped at him.
“What?” he asked and lifted his brow.
“That’s what I call her.” I gaped at him.
“I guess we think alike.” He winked at me and laughed.
“Yeah,” I said. “I guess.”
“You don’t sound very sure.” He turned on his signal again, making another right.
All I could see was trees. “Where are we going?” My stomach clenched.
“You’ll see.” He made a sharp right between two trees onto a small graveled path and suddenly I realized where we were. It was the same place I had pulled over when I had a flat tire with Vincent. The very place the weird glowing eyed thing had been and he made me leave. “Why are we here?” I pressed my palms on the dash, holding on as we bounced down the driveway. Branches scrapped the sides of his SUV, making an eerie scraping sound.
“It’s a surprise.”
“You know, I really should get home,” I said, feeling strangely unsettled by his evasiveness. “I forgot I have some homework to do and I’m sure my mom is wondering where I am. I mean she knows I’m with you and so does Ken… I mean Deputy Warren.”
He slammed on his brakes and my body jerked forward. I threw up my hands and held onto the dashboard. “What did you do that for?” my voice came out in an unusually high pitch.
“Sorry,” he said, even though he didn’t sound or look sorry at all. “Look.” He pointed out the windshield.
I was suddenly afraid to look at what he was talking about but forced my gaze out the windshield. A huge creature was right in front of us, the eyes glowing in the headlights. “What the …” I jerked back.
“See…” He pointed. “It’s a Bear,” he said.
“I can see that,” I snapped about to have a crap fit.
“Remember the other night?” he asked, turning toward me. His hand was on the steering wheel and the other flicked on the high beams.
“Yeah,” I said, watching the giant bear stare us down. He feathered the gas and crept forward. “What are you doing?”
“Isn’t it great?”
“Um yeah…great,” I said. “He doesn’t look happy we’re here.” The bear stood up on its hind legs, rising at least six or seven feet in the air.
“It’s a she,” he corrected.
I looked over at him, his face cloaked in shadows. “How do you know it’s a she?”
“Just watch,” he instructed.
I looked back out the windshield. Two little cubs scampered out of the woods into the driveway and ran behind the mother. “Oh, gosh…” I leaned forward. “They’re so cute.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “They are.”
“So this is why you told me to leave the other night?”
“Yeah, she is really territorial now with her cubs being so small.”
“What are you, like a bear whisperer or something?”
“Yeah, something like that.” He grinned at me. “I’m pretty sure her den is around here close by.”
“How’d you know she would be out?”
“I didn’t.”
“So what would have happened if she wasn’t out here in the open?”
“I would have gotten out and we would have went to look for her.”
“Are you out of your ever-loving mind?”
His grin grew. “Maaybee,” he said in a singsong voice, just like Glinda had done. I shivered.
Turning, he put the SUV in reverse and started backing slowly up the drive. Once we were far enough away he put the SUV in park. In the distance, I could see the bear drop back down on all fours and walk slowly down the drive like it didn’t have a care in the world. “I was out walking in the woods one day and I saw her…” He paused. “Actually, she saw me first.”
“What happened?” He looked at some spot in the distance his voice coming out strangely calm.
“She got mad and hit me with her paw.”
“Oh my God,” I burst, covering my mouth.
“She clipped me here and here,” he said, pointing to the two scars on his face.
“Did she try to eat you?” I asked not even thinking about how stupid I must have sounded.
“No,” he said, shaking his head. “I think she just wanted to scare me away. Beside bears don’t really want to eat people. They like berries and fish, honey, that sort of stuff. People aren’t really on their list.
“I’ve heard about bear attacks. They do kill people.”
“Only when they are feeling threatened.”
“How can you be so blasé?” I asked. “That bear could have killed you.”
“Yeah, but don’t you see… she didn’t. That is what is important,” he said. “It is in her nature to kill and yet she spared me.”
“So what?” I argued. “It was probably a fluke.”
He shrugged. “Maybe,” he said. “I try to think of it as she made a choice not to kill me.”
“So what, now you think you’re friends and she won’t hurt you again?” I threw my hands up in exasperation. “That is crazy.” Something dawned on me. “Is that why you made me leave and you stayed?” I felt sick. “You wanted to see if she would try again?”
“I don’t know.” A deep sadness passed over his face. My heart lurched in my chest at the sight. “At first I was s
o angry,” he continued. “I should have died that night,” he said almost wistfully. “And my dad was going to send out a hunting party and kill it but I wouldn’t let him.” He turned pained filled eyes on me. “I told him she spared me so he had to spare her as well.”
“Viktor, it’s a bear,” I said. “It is in her nature to kill.”
“Isn’t it in every beings nature to kill… or be killed?”
“No.” I shuddered at the thought. “Not people. We have a choice.”
“Well, you’re quite the optimist.” He gave me a half-hearted smile that didn’t reach his eyes.
“Not really.” I tried to process what he must have went through and knew I couldn’t even begin to come close to what he must have felt. “
“What would have you done?”
“I don’t know.” I took a shaky breath. “I’m just glad the bear didn’t kill you.”
“Why’s that?” he breathed.
“Because I would have never gotten to meet you,” I said honestly.
“It might have been better for you, if she had.” His eyes glittered in the darkness.
I swallowed hard and my skin prickled. “Why’s that?”
“Because I’m …” He leaned forward, his face nearing mine…I saw a flash of something cross his face and then he…gagged.