Lauren dropped to her knees and laid a hand on Gabriel’s cheek, warm and moist. He breathed steadily. She shifted her hand to Ashley’s cheek, then snapped it back. Hot! Worse than any fever. Yet she breathed easily. No sign of convulsions.
A loud rustle erupted in the cornstalks, growing louder and louder. After a few seconds, a dragon shuffled into view with Walter dangling from its teeth by his shirt.
Lauren swallowed. “Roxil?”
The she-dragon bobbed her head and gently laid Walter on a carpet of fallen stalks. “I watched where he fell and retrieved him. He is alive and appears to be relatively intact. I detected no severe trauma.” She extended her neck and looked Lauren over. “I was able to release Gabriel at a low altitude, so I hope your spill did not cause too much injury.”
“I’m okay.” Lauren touched a rip in her jacket at the elbow. Something stung underneath. “Just some scrapes, I think.” She gave Roxil a smile and a head bow. “Thank you for rescuing us.”
“It was my pleasure. I regret that I could not arrive earlier to ease your landing even more.”
“Oh, my head!” Gabriel sat up and massaged his scalp. “I’m never going to jump out of a plane while carrying three people again.”
Lauren swung toward him. “Any other pain?”
“A few bruises.” He blinked at Ashley as if seeing her for the first time. “Sis!” He leaned over and laid a palm on her forehead. “Wow! She’s as hot as fire.”
“I know,” Lauren said. “How could fever spike so fast?”
“This has happened before. She gets hot when she . . .” He stared at Lauren.
Lauren blinked at him. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
“You could barely move, but you hauled Walter out of the pilot’s seat and hung on to him nearly all the way down.”
“Adrenaline?” Lauren shrugged. “I didn’t think about it.”
“How are you feeling now?”
“Okay. Just a little banged up.”
Thunder boomed, closer this time. The wind strengthened and batted everyone’s hair into a frenzy.
Gabriel pushed Ashley’s hair from her face. “She gets this hot when she’s healed someone.” He looked at Lauren again. “Was she touching you when that lightning struck?”
Lauren let her mind drift to the moment the flash of light shot through the cabin. “Yes, we were holding hands. Ashley had just prayed for . . .” She whispered the rest. “My healing.”
“She probably had the presence of mind to look at you. Beams from her eyes do the internal healing.” Gabriel glanced from side to side. “We need water. Gotta cool her down.”
Roxil stretched her neck high. “I will see if I can find some.” In a flurry of wings, she took off.
Still on her knees, Lauren shuffled to Walter and grasped his wrist. Again his pulse throbbed—fast and jumpy. “His heart is beating in a weird way.”
“He took quite a jolt.” Gabriel flapped his wings and glided to Walter’s other side. “The electrical current might have messed up the rhythm.”
“That sounds dangerous.”
“Potentially.” He beat his wings again, rose above the cornstalks, and looked around, as he hovered erratically in the wind. “No sign of the chopper.”
“Right. I almost forgot.” Lauren pulled the tracking device from her pocket and studied the screen. A stationary red dot flashed on a map. “The signal isn’t moving. I guess they landed.”
“Most likely. That storm’s expanding too quickly. We couldn’t get away from it.” Gabriel rose higher. “I’m heading to Merlin to see if I can salvage the first-aid kit.”
“Watch out for lightning!”
He winked. “I’ll dodge the bolts.”
When Gabriel disappeared beyond the stalks, Lauren muttered, “Watch out for lightning.” She let out a huff. My brain must have gotten scrambled.
She sat close to Walter and held his hand. It felt cool and clammy. His face, partially covered by beard stubble, looked serene, noble, brave. “You risked your life to rescue me from the lava field, but I can’t think of anything to do for you.”
As her scales tingled, a voice entered her mind. Nonsense, Lauren, you already risked your life by carrying him to safety.
Lauren swung her head toward Ashley. She still lay on the ground, but now her eyes blinked. “Can you talk?” Lauren asked.
Ashley whispered, “Well . . . a little, but it hurts.”
Then stick with mind speaking.
Okay. Help me get close to my husband.
While sporadic raindrops tapped the fallen stalks, Lauren lifted Ashley to all fours and guided her toward Walter. Ashley’s arms trembled, as if ready to buckle. When she reached him, she laid her head on his chest. His heart is irregular, but it’s not ventricular fibrillation. More like a bunch of premature contractions.
Is it dangerous?
Not yet. Ashley rolled to her back and closed her eyes. But I’m not so sure about myself. She licked her dry lips and spoke out loud. “Ringing ears . . . febrile hallucinations . . . extreme vertigo.” Her arms locked at the elbows, and her fists clenched. Her body jittered for a few seconds, then she fell limp, and her head lolled to the side.
“Ashley!” Lauren looked to the sky and shouted, “Roxil! Where’s that water?” She cupped her hands, caught a few raindrops, and splashed them over Ashley’s face, then repeated the process again and again and moistened Ashley’s chest and arms as well.
Wind whipped the cornstalks. Lightning flashed once more. Thunder cracked. Rain burst from the sky and swept across the field in cold, horizontal sheets.
Lauren pulled Ashley’s sweatshirt off and unbuttoned the top of her shirt to let the cool water penetrate. Then she settled on her knees and looked upward again, blinking at the driving rain. “Roxil!” she shouted. “Gabriel! Where are you?”
“Coming!” Roxil swooped low, carrying a wooden trough just above the bending stalks. A gust threw her down. The trough crashed and spilled a torrent of icy water across the human trio. Lauren gasped. Ashley sat up, coughing and spluttering. Walter groaned but stayed on his back.
Roxil belly-landed and slid a dozen feet, smashing cornstalks along the way. When she stopped, Gabriel flew into sight with a white box in his hands. He settled in a trot and dropped to his knees next to Ashley. “How is everyone?”
“Wet.” Ashley peeled plastered hair away from her cheek. “But better.”
“And Walter?”
Ashley pressed a hand over Walter’s chest. After a few seconds, she nodded. “Rhythm is not quite normal, but closer.” She took a deep cleansing breath. “And I’m picking up some coherent thoughts. I think he’ll be all right.”
“Good.” While rain continued to pour, Gabriel set the first-aid box on the muddy ground and opened it. He spread his wings and shielded the contents as he withdrew a thermometer and a bottle of Tylenol. He pushed the thermometer into Ashley’s mouth and opened the bottle. “Let’s send Lauren and Roxil on their way.”
Roxil lumbered toward them, her clawed feet splashing. “I am ready.”
“Now?” Lauren asked.
Gabriel nodded. “Now. There’s no time to lose.”
“Lois has been giving me updates,” Roxil said. “Reports of sightings of Bonnie and Matt are diminishing. They are likely in an isolated area now, so the longer we wait, the harder it will be to find them.”
Lauren touched her jaw. “I didn’t hear anything. Maybe the lightning bolt jolted my transmitter.”
“Could be,” Gabriel said. “They’re pretty tough. It might have just shut itself off.”
Ashley wrinkled her nose. “I think mine is cooked.” She reached into her mouth, pried the wafer from her molars, and pulled it out. Squinting at it, she said, “Yep. It’s a goner.”
Lauren gave her jaw a tap. Sound returned, though static buzzed in the background. “I got mine to work, but it’s kind of shaky.” She looked toward the
crash site. Smoke still billowed into the storm clouds. “How can you manage without Merlin?”
“I’ll manage.” He pulled the thermometer from Ashley’s mouth and pushed three Tylenol tablets into her hand. “Take these, Sis.” He then squinted at the thermometer. “One hundred and six.”
“A hundred and six!” Lauren’s own cheeks heated up. “She needs to get to a hospital!”
Ashley swallowed the tablets. “Actually, that’s not too bad. It was probably a couple of degrees higher than that before Roxil doused me.”
“You still need to get treated. Roxil can fly you to—”
“No!” Gabriel rose, grabbed Lauren’s arm, and lifted her to her feet. “Listen. Ashley, Walter, and I have been through a hundred fixes a lot worse than this. You’re the only one who can hear Bonnie’s song, and Roxil’s the only ride you have.” He smiled and pushed Lauren’s hair back with a gentle hand. “Your mother and your brother need you. Trust me to take care of Walter and Ashley. I’ve been something of a guardian angel for a very long time.”
Lauren stared at him through the driving rain. His words knifed deeply. She couldn’t worry about everyone. She had to do her part and leave the rest to others.
“You’re right.” She handed Gabriel the tracking device and spun toward Roxil. “Let’s go!”
Roxil lowered her head to the ground. “Climb onto my back and hang on. This will be the roughest ride of your life.”
Rainwater dripping from her hair, Lauren hurried up Roxil’s neck staircase and sat between two protruding spines on her back. The moment she settled, Roxil took off. As they rose, Lauren looked toward the ground. With every downbeat of Roxil’s wings, Gabriel, Ashley, and Walter came into view, though sheets of water and bending cornstalks quickly drew a curtain across their forms.
Wet wind beat against Lauren’s body and sent Roxil lurching to the side. With each gust, Lauren clutched the spine more tightly. Ahead, darker clouds loomed like a black awning under-girded by a purple wall.
A lightning bolt streaked from cloud to ground followed by a rifle-shot thunderclap. Lauren ducked her head. When the rumble subsided, she stayed low and stared at the monstrous cloudbank. If Mom and Matt traveled on the other side, why would God allow such a violent storm to block her from reaching them? Why would he allow lightning to disable Merlin, injure Walter and Ashley, and force them to go on foot? Why did evil seem to be in control?
She sighed and wrapped her arms around Roxil’s spine. It didn’t matter. She had made her choice to do whatever was necessary to stop Tamiel and rescue Matt and their mother, even if it meant jumping into a volcano . . . or worse.
Chapter 4
A HITCHHIKER
Jared reclined on the rental RV’s sofa. Any movement worsened a pounding headache that felt as if a lumberjack were splitting his skull instead of a log. Pain ravaged every inch of skin, muscle, and bone. The parasite that had invaded his body, as well as those of the other original anthrozils, had left behind toxins that still had to be flushed out, but they were leaving, slowly . . . too slowly.
With the help of a walking cane, he shifted to get a look at the lovely driver. While the stereo played an energetic jazz piece from a CD, Marilyn gripped the steering wheel with one loose hand, her hair tied back in a ponytail. The lush tail protruded through the back of a baseball cap and swayed at the collar of her navy polo shirt. Thin streaks of gray ran through her light brown hair, giving testimony to her decades of holding up under the worst stress imaginable.
Jared mentally replayed some of their adventures. During countless battles against demonic forces and during the trials of putting up with a husband who changed to a dragon, back to a human, back to a dragon, and then back to a human again, she barely flinched. Her faith and loyalty seemed unbreakable. And now she drove this big vehicle like a pro, hour after hour, though she stopped from time to time to take advantage of the RV’s kitchen and shower facilities and catch a short nap.
He angled his head to check the sky—no sign of rain. Earlier, they had barreled through a huge storm that whipped the RV with high winds, heavy rain, and hail. Besides that bout with the weather, this journey had been relatively easy, but mystery lay ahead. How difficult would it be to get the necessary data file and DNA sample from Larry? With government agents monitoring his data streams, it would be almost impossible. Almost.
Jared set his walking cane to the side, closed his eyes, and leaned back on a pillow. As the RV roared on, its tires rumbled on the pavement, raising a memory—a mother dragon’s purr. How long had it been since that lovely sound had sung him to sleep? Too many years. That was so long ago, back in an age when mothers cared for their babies, even against the most fiendish attacks. Recent media reports, however, had turned that notion upside down.
Pushing the pain to the side, he called out, “Hey, gorgeous driver! Heard any news lately?”
“Nothing about Arramos’s plans, or the Enforcers, if that’s what you mean.” She pushed a button that switched the stereo to the radio setting. A wailing signal pulsed through the speakers, prompting her to raise her voice. “The only station I can get . . .” She turned the radio down and spoke at a normal volume. “The only station I can get keeps broadcasting an emergency alarm and plays the same warnings over and over. No one is allowed on the roads except for essential vehicles, but they don’t define what those are, and I haven’t seen anyone enforcing it.”
“This country’s too big for martial law. They’re probably concentrating on helping the Enforcers round up children. It’s a big job.”
“It would be if they didn’t have so much help.” Marilyn squeezed the steering wheel as if wringing out a rag. “Can you imagine turning in someone’s children? Or worse, your own children? And for what? A year’s worth of food stamps?”
“I heard they were giving away televisions.”
“Whatever. It’s madness. Pure madness.” She waved a hand toward the highway. “And it must be contagious. Even the weather is going crazy. A tsunami hit San Francisco, three typhoons are about to make landfall in Asia, and tornado warnings are up all across the central U.S.”
“From the storm we just drove through?”
“Probably. We want to stay ahead of that monster, so I’ll keep driving as far as I can.” She yawned, then frowned. “Bad timing.”
“Yep. You’ve got to be exhausted.” Jared peered at the gauges. “How’s the tank holding up?”
“Mine or the RV’s?” She glanced back, smiling. “Maybe fifty miles. I saw a sign saying there’s an open station at the next exit. We can check it out.”
“Agreed. Open or not, I’d like to try to walk again.”
“Good idea. You need to get your blood pumping.”
“It already is. Arramos’s scheme saw to that.” Jared touched his cane. “If I’m able to walk without help, I’m sure I can drive for a little while, at least long enough for you to get a snooze.”
“We’ll see about that, Mister I’m-never-too-injured-to-go-full-steam-ahead.”
After a few minutes, Marilyn stopped the RV and shut off the engine. Jared pushed a curtain aside and peeked out the window. She had pulled under the high roof of a Shell station’s fueling island. Although its pumps appeared to be operational, only a solitary pickup truck sat in the parking area. The ban on nonessential vehicles had cleared the roads, but the government had probably ordered some stations to stay open.
Jared grabbed his cane and pushed himself to his feet. Marilyn opened the side door and helped him down the stairs to the pavement. “I’ll check out the store,” Jared said.
Marilyn steadied him. “Need some help?”
“Better to fly solo. I need to test my legs.”
“I’ll pump the gas. Shout if you need me.”
“Will do.” After giving her the cane, he walked stiffly toward the station’s store, his head low. Pain shot through both legs, but as his muscles loosened, each step seemed easier than the one
before.
A man wearing patched jeans rushed out from the store and held the door for him. “You seem to be suffering quite a bit, sir.”
“Not enough to keep me down. But thanks.” Jared stopped in front of the oval-faced stranger, a shorter man than most. He wore silver-dollar glasses, and scars covered his face and scalp, likely from burns. “Mardon? Is that you?”
“I should have guessed that you would recognize me. I suppose I have some distinguishing characteristics that are memorable.”
“You’re memorable. That’s for sure. I just didn’t expect to run into you out here in the middle of nowhere. This can’t be a mere coincidence.”
“You are correct. When one of Tamiel’s spies informed him that you and Marilyn had departed on this road trip, as it were, I deduced from your last known trajectory that you were on your way to your West Virginia home. A little research told me how much fuel this vehicle holds and where the open fueling stations were located, so I knew where you would most likely stop, and I simply waited for you.”
“Care to say why you’re tracking me?”
“All in good time. First I want to make sure you remember an important fact.” Mardon gazed straight at Jared. “Do you remember when we first met?”
Jared nodded. “When your mother brought you to me in Second Eden begging for medical help. Deception has a way of sticking in my memory.”
“That was not deception.” Mardon touched a scar on his cheek. “My burns are quite real, though the pain has long since subsided.”
“But I assume the scars remain in more ways than the obvious.”
“You are a perceptive man.” Mardon smiled, but it seemed forced. “My physical discomfort is far exceeded by the torture of never being able to conquer the beast who did this to me.”
“You mean Arramos.”
“Exactly the reason for my query into your memory. My mother and I vowed revenge on him that day, and our hunger to fulfill that vow has only increased over the years.”
Jared looked him over. Since he had been able to open the door, he still had a physical body, even though he was dead . . . sort of. “So, again, what brings you here?”