“I don’t understand. I’ve only just met you,” he managed in a strangled voice. “The dybbuks had you.”
She gave a disgusted snort and stepped closer, then leaned over him, glaring balefully at him. “Really? That’s what you think? Then you are a fool. Such a pathetic fool. And to think I once would’ve moved the world for you, yet that pathetic waste of flesh is all you can think about. We’ll see how you manage when she’s beyond your concern.”
He tried to get up, but it felt like she’d settled her hand on his chest and constantly pushed him down, keeping him right where she wanted him.
Lying there, he stared at her face, trying to remember but unable, not with his heart pounded against his chest, and the world shifting in and out of focus. Think, he commanded himself.
She seemed to sense his thoughts because that evil smile now changed to laughter, and the sound of it splintered his focus even more.
Then Clarissa was walking away, and all he could do was watch her go as the pressure persisted on his chest, keeping him prone. Even after she’d vanished from sight, he found he couldn’t move. It was hard enough just to breathe.
“Elizabeth?” he called, thinking somehow his voice would help her come back to consciousness. If she were still alive. She had to be. And yet, when he looked at her via his peripheral vision, she was so still she modeled death, and until he could feel her breath caressing his cheek and see her eyes slowly open, he wouldn’t stop panicking.
A shadow fell across him, and Lev forced his gaze in that direction. A dybbuk stood over him, hands reaching out as the man slowly leaned over. The vacuous eyes settled on Lev’s face, and Lev found that he still couldn’t move, couldn’t fight, even though he tried with everything he had.
The hands came near, scant inches from his chest, and then then were gone and blackness claimed him.
“Lev?”
He shrugged off the darkness and found that Riley leaned over him.
“What are you doing? It isn’t safe, and you’re in no shape to fight any dybbuks.” He glanced around, checking to make sure there were no more of them before he effortlessly reached down and lifted him to a standing position as though he didn’t feel the weight that Clarissa had exerted upon him to keep him on the ground.
“Elizabeth?” Lev said, pulling away from Riley and rushing toward Elizabeth.
“You could at least say something else besides her name,” Riley muttered, folding his arms across his chest as he watched Lev’s frantic motions.
“Clarissa isn’t Clarissa,” he finally muttered as he reached Elizabeth’s side. He took a deep breath and leaned over her, settling his cheek right next to her mouth, waiting to feel her breath caress his cheek.
“Great, now you’re talking like a jabbering idiot,” Riley smirked, stepping closer. “Where is she, anyway? She’s about as useful as you are.”
Lev didn’t answer. He waited until he felt Elizabeth’s breath, and his shoulders sank in relief when he realized she was still alive. His whole body hurt with the tension that had been there.
“Thank God.” He laid his head on her chest, grateful to be close to her. No matter what the future held, he could withstand it so long as Elizabeth was alive.
“Where is Clarissa?” Riley demanded, stepping up behind Lev.
“I don’t know,” he snapped, glowering at Riley. “One minute she was leaning over Elizabeth, doing who knows what with a dybbuk beside her, and the next she was slamming me to the ground, telling me I should remember her from before we found her. Then she and her dybbuk left.”
Riley blinked, several emotions crossing his face before the frown found its way back.
“How did you know it was a dybbuk?”
“What else would it have been?” Lev demanded, anger surging through him.
“An angel,” Riley said, his voice low, like a growl.
“Lev?” Evan said as he and Celia suddenly appeared in the tent’s flap. “Are you all right?”
“I’m fine.” He nodded toward Elizabeth. “I’m just worried.”
Evan strode up next to him. “Why? What happened?”
Although Lev really didn’t feel he had the strength or the patience to go into detail yet again, he forced himself.
“Why would Clarissa do that?” Celia asked. “She was terrified of the dybbuks.”
“Or maybe she just acted terrified to throw us off her tracks,” Lev said, staring at Elizabeth. In fact, he was so bothered by her stillness that he often looked at her chest, making sure it rose and fell as it should have with each breath.
“She also said I knew her, but for the life of me I can’t remember having known her.” Lev frowned and tried to sift back through his memories, both of when he had been an angel and the time since when he’d lived at as a human, yet in spite of how diligently he tried, he just couldn’t find any memories to back up her claim. Then again, since he’d become a human, much of his life before he’d saved Elizabeth had drifted into blackness. In short, he could remember his life just about as well as he could fly. He really couldn’t, except for the occasional bits and pieces that seemed to force their way to the top where he couldn’t ignore them.
Whoever or whatever Clarissa really was, he couldn’t place her. Unfortunately, he was pretty sure that this wasn’t the last he’d see of her.
“Do you remember her?” Riley demanded.
“Not in the slightest.” As Lev sat there, he saw Elizabeth shift as though she were struggling to get comfortable. Part of him wondered if she would ever be able to manage such a thing again, and part of him just wanted her eyes to open and set his world right.
Riley shook his head, obviously angry at all the information they didn’t have. “I should go and see what I can find out about Clarissa. I probably should’ve done that before now.”
Without waiting for any of them to acknowledge him, he disappeared, leaving Celia and Evan hovering.
“What do we do now?” Lev asked as Griffin stumbled in. He looked as weak as Lev felt. Neither of them had fared particularly well in the barn, and the bruises and fatigue were evident on Griffin’s face.
“We try to take Elizabeth somewhere the dybbuks won’t find her.” Evan touched Lev’s shoulder reassuringly.
“Have you been able to tell what they’ve done to her?” Lev asked hopefully despite knowing it was a long-shot.
“Not yet.” I’ll examine her more closely once we get her re-situated.”
“What about Riley?” Lev asked.
“You let me worry about getting word to him.” Celia stepped to Griffin’s side, a worried glint in her eyes as she took his arm.
“Celia, we can’t keep running,” Griffin said, rubbing his neck. “They’re going to keep coming.”
“Not if we can figure out how to shut off the channels Elizabeth has somehow opened,” Evan said, leaning ever closer to study Elizabeth’s expression. “We just need time to work through this. The answer is here.”
Although Evan’s words seemed hopeful enough, Lev didn’t ignore the way he carefully averted his gaze when speaking, trying to keep the truth hidden. He wasn’t sure what could be done, or even that Elizabeth could be saved.
Chapter Eighteen
During the next few hours, the small group drove on, heading only Evan knew where. Lev managed to keep between the lines on the road only by means of sheer determination, and more than once Celia offered to switch places, especially as the sky darkened and she watched Lev yawn more and more often.
Still, he wasn’t ready to relinquish his responsibility of driving the Jeep. Right now, it was as close to Elizabeth as he was going to get, and it had to be enough.
“You look tired, Lev,” Celia said. Part of him wished he could offer some smart comment about her looking just as tired, but she was still angelic. She didn’t get tired, or at least not tired in the human sense.
“It doesn’t matter. It’s not like any of us can afford to be tired right now.” He raked his fingers through his hair and straig
htened, acutely aware the road was lulling him to an all-too comfortable state, one that might’ve seen him drifting off had Celia not stirred him.
“Why don’t you let me drive?” she asked, leaning forward.
“Well, let’s see…since I’m human, this is one of the few things I can still do, so that’s a no. Sorry.” His tone came out biting, and part of him was really sorry. He had no reason to be angry at Celia. He just couldn’t seem to help himself these days.
“It’s not your fault, Lev.”
Lev laughed but without humor. “Yeah, well, it doesn’t matter whose fault it is or isn’t. The results are the same, and I’m living them.” He squinted at the taillights in front of him. “Any idea where Evan is leading us?”
Celia shook her head. “None. Still, we both know he has a plan. Evan always has a plan.”
“Yeah, well, it’d be nice if more of them worked from time to time.”
Although Celia tried to hide her grin, she couldn’t, and burst into laughter herself. “I won’t tell him you said that.”
“Thanks.”
Ahead of them, the brake lights on Griffin’s car suddenly blazed to life, illuminating things in front of him considerably, followed shortly after by his turn signal.
“Looks like we’re getting off the highway,” Lev mused. He craned his neck, trying to register the surroundings, but in the gathering dark everything lay in shadow. Even so, Lev was pretty sure Evan had picked some hole in the wall place that the dybbuks would skim right past so long as they could somehow get Elizabeth’s power to shut down.
That was a really big if, and everything depended on it. Talk about pressure.
“So, you want to talk about what you’ve not told the others?” Celia asked, purposely keeping her tone light and breezy. She knew Lev well enough to guess that force wasn’t going to accomplish anything.
“What do you mean?” he asked, matching her tone. It was the easiest way to distract her—if she were going to be distracted, which he doubted she would.
“Out with it. I know you well enough so that something is really getting under your skin.”
He shrugged. “I just think that whatever was between me and Clarissa must have been personal, like this whole thing was far from over.”
The words came rushing out, and if he’d planned better, he wouldn’t have told her half of that, but, as usual, he was even worse at planning stuff than Evan was, not that he would’ve admitted it. Still, they all knew it, and both Evan and Celia had given him many a hard time about it.
“Maybe Riley will uncover the truth about your relationship with her, and that will answer a few questions.”
Lev shrugged. “Maybe, and maybe those answers will be worse than my not knowing, if you get my drift.”
She nodded. “We’re all aware that you haven’t had a spotless past, Lev. None of us knows all there is to know about your background, and you probably remember less about it each day. But if any of those answers can help Elizabeth, you have to believe they’re worth it. I know I do.”
“You’re right,” he agreed, watching as Griffin pulled into a small area to camp. It wasn’t really a campground, per se, but Lev was pretty sure his father hadn’t been looking for one. He’d been looking for some place off the grid where they could all lie low until they could sort things out.
From the moment Lev parked the Jeep and got out, his mind had already latched onto Elizabeth, and he watched anxiously as his father reached into the back seat and lift her out. In his peripheral vision, he saw Celia head straight to Griffin’s side, and part of him was glad because the last thing he wanted to be was an item on someone’s checklist, and more and more that’s all he felt like, since very little of what he could do ended up helping anyone, especially Elizabeth. He’d become more trouble than he was worth, though none of them would’ve said so except, of course, for Riley. Lev had no doubt there was no end to the things Riley would say.
“Get the blanket out that she has been lying on. We’ll need it until we can get the tents set up.”
Wordlessly, Lev did as he was told, but even so he kept his gaze fixed on Elizabeth. He didn’t know what he was expecting to happen, but something in Clarissa’s words gave him pause. What that would mean for Elizabeth he had no clue, and he wondered if Riley might be able to shed some light on things.
Evan carried Elizabeth from the car to a nearby tree while Lev followed, feeling useless, which was getting to be a natural state of mind for him.
“Set the blanket down.” Evan nodded toward the tree, and Lev did as he was told, waiting until his father had gently rested Elizabeth’s body against the soft folds of the blankets before Lev sat next to her.
For a moment, Evan lingered, watching his son with a frown tugging at the corners of his mouth. Lev could tell Evan was torn between just walking away and actually getting out whatever was on Lev’s mind. The thing was, Lev wasn’t sure he really wanted to know. Still, when Evan spoke, it didn’t much matter what Lev wanted.
“Look, I know you want her to wake up and find that none of this happened, but we both know it’s not going to go down like that, right?” Evan leveled his no-nonsense gaze at his son, expecting an answer as Lev lowered himself to sit next to his beloved.
“It could,” Lev managed in a tight voice, knowing it was all he could say. He had to keep his hope alive in the face of everything else.
“All right, it’s a possibility. I’ll give you that. But it’s a very slight possibility. Although we know the dybbuks wanted her because she was a conduit, Riley seems to think there was more to it. When she wakes up, it could be a total surprise for all of us. I just want you to brace yourself for that.”
Lev forced himself not to give his father a dirty look for overstating the obvious. Rage at the entirety of everything coursed through him, and he found himself wanting to punch his fist through something, which would only make Evan hover all the more. No, not reacting was better.
“I get it,” he said in a dull voice. “I’ll handle whatever comes when it comes.”
Evan offered a shallow nod. “That’s what I wanted to hear. Just stay with Elizabeth, and we’ll get the tents set up. Hopefully we’re far enough from the dybbuks’ nest they won’t find us here.”
That’s a huge hope, Lev thought but refrained from saying anything. All he wanted right now was for his father to go on his way and give him time with Elizabeth.
Finally, just when Lev was beginning to get desperate, Evan abruptly veered and, true to his word, began setting up the tents for the night with the others. Still, Lev could feel his father watching them, waiting for something to happen. They all watched and waited.
Lev lay on the blanket next to Elizabeth so his head was beside hers and if she would just open her eyes she’d see he’d never left her. He never would. He’d made that promise so very long ago and now lived it every day no matter how hard things got. She was his promise, and he’d die fulfilling it. But she didn’t open her eyes—didn’t look at him. She never even moved save for the soft rise and fall of her chest. Still, he knew she’d wake, and regardless of what Evan said, she’d be the old Elizabeth and somehow they would all fix their lives so things could go on as they had. There’d be something Evan and Riley could do, wouldn’t there? Lev had to believe things would work out. They’d gone through too much for it not to. No one could withstand such loss after those kinds of sacrifices, and he’d done everything ever asked of him. That had to mean something.
In contrast to the light blanket, Elizabeth’s hair lay like black silk as it fanned out around her head, and while her skin was dark she nonetheless seemed pale to him, so unlike his Elizabeth. Yet she had to be in there somewhere, and if he could just see her eyes again, he’d find her. He knew he would.
A movement in the dark heavens caught his attention, and fearing another party of dybbuks, he shifted his gaze toward it, Evan’s name on his lips, ready to call out a warning, but it was only a falling star streaking across the
sky. He watched the trailing glow of brilliance until it was gone, and he wondered if it were a sign of things to come, things he didn’t want to think about now or ever. Instead, he stared at Elizabeth one last time to make sure she was breathing and then closed his own eyes, letting the fatigue melt everything around him away.
* * *
Lev felt the morning sun all around him, and the sound of birdsong only confirmed it. Still, he wasn’t ready for the explosion of light when he opened his eyes. Strangely, Evan hadn’t moved them into a tent but had left them lying under the tree, and for a moment, Lev was baffled. Then he realized why.
While Elizabeth still slept on her back just as she’d always done, Lev had twisted onto his side, rolling into her so their bodies intertwined. There’d been no separating them.
Lev blinked a couple of times, waiting for his eyes to adjust, and felt the pins-and-needles sensation of the arm beneath Elizabeth, which was what finally prompted him to move—the need to get the blood pumping back into it. Gritting his teeth, he shifted slightly, easing his arm free.
Although he expected that Elizabeth would remain lost in the void of unconsciousness as, when he heard a soft sigh of breath escape her lips and saw her eyelids flutter, he realized that she might actually be coming around.
“Elizabeth? Can you hear me?”
She cocked her head to one side and shifted, another good sign. Perhaps she just needed to hear his voice again.
The way his voice broke the stillness around them, Lev figured either Celia or Evan would suddenly give themselves away, but the only movement came from a couple of birds flying across the sky.
Unsure what else to do, Lev stroked her face. She would remember his touch. They’d been so close—as close as two people can get. He held his breath and waited for something to happen because he knew the moment Elizabeth’s eyes opened, his life would change again. He just wanted to know how.
“Elizabeth?” he repeated, a little louder this time. “Can you hear me?”
She opened her eyes, and she drew in a jagged breath as though she were just coming back to life and her body suddenly remembered it needed more air than what she’d been taking in.