Page 54

Chance

When Spin and Monkey came around the corner, I waved one arm. He waved back, so I ducked my head into the open window of the SUV.

“They’re here,” I told Chessie.

When Rome had called me and said there was a change of plans, my first thought was that Monkey had taken a turn for the worse. He’d reassured me that she was fine, then explained that Spin and Monkey would be joining us on our assignment because theirs had hit a wall.

So we’d headed back to the city to pick them up at LaGuardia.

“Good to see you, bro!” Spin caught me in a one-armed guy hug as Chessie climbed out of the passenger seat.

“You, too.” I grinned and thumped his back, then turned to Chessie. “Chessie, this is Spin and—”

Chessie let out a hurt little sound, not really a word, and ignored Spin and me in her rush to reach Monkey.

Hugging the older girl, Chessie tutted and coated her in power, and Monkey’s knees gave out.

Despite her pitiful thinness, Monkey was half a foot taller than Chessie and all arms and legs.

As Chessie struggled to hold her up, I moved to help, but Spin was faster.

He swung Monkey into his arms like a princess and carried her a few feet away.

“Hey! What are you doing to her?” he demanded.

“Helping her!” Chessie snapped. “Can’t you see that she ripped up inside? She’s full of great, gaping holes, and none of you noticed ?”

“We’re not transitionists,” I reminded her. “Gemma nearly drained herself at City of the Future, then I did the same at the safehouse, but healers are limited to physical injuries.”

“Put her in the back seat,” Chessie ordered Spin. “You can sit up front with Chance while I do what I can. Hopefully I can repair enough to at least stop her pain.”

“She’s hurting? I— I didn’t know. I couldn’t tell. I should have known! She’s had nightmares every night!”

Spin’s eyes grew wild and wide, signaling a meltdown was imminent.

“Hey, buddy. Calm down,” I told him. “We knew she was traumatized, but she flat-out refused to go to the Sanctuary with Gina, remember? We did the best we could with what we had.”

“Not good enough.” He shook his head. “Our best wasn’t good enough. Not if she’s hurting!”

“Do what Chessie said, okay? She can help. She’s really good.”

Chessie had climbed into the SUV and now held her hands out like a mother wanting her baby. So Spin set Monkey in the seat, buckled her in, and watched as Chessie wrapped her arms and her power around his lady.

I put my hand on his shoulder and was a little shocked to feel the fine tremors running through him. I didn’t need to call up the empathy, though, to figure out what was wrong with him.

Guilt had him on the rack.

He did or said something in his Spin-typical way, and now he’s ashamed of it. I hope Monkey makes him pay penance for a good long while. He gets away with being a jerk far too often.

Then Chessie’s words sprang into my mind: “Being a jerk is a form of shielding, too, you know.”

Considering how vulnerable a new relationship made you feel, I could guess his anxiety had driven him to be callous with Monkey, and now his conscience was flaying him for it.

That’s penance enough, I guess.

“Come on, buddy.” I squeezed his shoulder. “I’ll drive while you keep watch.”

#

Spin

We had the road to ourselves except for a battered and dirty FedEx truck ahead of us, which sputtered blue-gray smoke from its tailpipe.

I kept waiting for Chance to pass it because the gasoline smell coming in through the heater was noxious, but he didn’t.

It would have meant breaking the speed limit, and Chance drove like an old lady, even out here in the Pennsylvania boondocks, where there was nothing but forests and steep ridges that rose on either side of the blacktop.

Sighing, I resigned myself to a slow death by toxic fumes and was half-tempted to give in and pass out like both of the girls in the back seat.

Of course, they’re exhausted, Chessie because she slathered Monkey with a ton of power to stop her from hurting so badly, and Monkey because she hasn’t recovered yet from what those beasts did to her…

I told myself to shut up. I wasn’t ready to deal with that yet.

Mercifully, a dark blot in the sky diverted my attention.

I sat up. Whatever it was, it was falling from the clouds at tremendous speed. Squinting a bit, I realized it was a person. I estimated the speed of his fall versus ours and told Chance to stop the car.

“Hmm?” He swiveled his head to look at me. “I thought you’d fallen asleep— “Stop the car!”

“Whoa! What is that? A skydiver?” He finally saw it, and I braced my hand on the dashboard. “Where’s his parachute? Why isn’t he deploying it?”

“What’s going on?” Chessie’s voice was thick with sleep.

No one had time to answer her. Right as Chance brought the car to a halt, the body slammed into the road in front of the FedEx truck. The driver stood on his brakes, but was too late. The truck skidded and slid sideways—right over the new crater in the road.

We hurried out of the car, and a human male barrelled around the back of the delivery truck. He slowed to a stiff-legged walk as he saw the body embedded in the shattered pavement.

“Good Lord!” He put his hand over his mouth. “Have you ever seen anything like that?”

“No.” I propped my hands on my hips. “Only on TV.”

“Must be a soldier who fell out of his helicopter or something.” The human pushed his ball cap back to scratch his head. “Nothing else makes sense, right? I mean, what in the world ?”

“Yeah.” I looked at the body, which was decked out in full tactical gear complete with dark-visored helmet. Only thing missing was a weapon. “I didn’t hear or see a helicopter, though.”

“Guess there’s no point in calling 9-1-1, is there?” he asked, pulling his eyes up to mine.

“Probably not, but let’s make sure.” Chance knelt down and felt for a pulse.

As he pushed the person’s glove out of the way, the sun flashed off a familiar bracelet, and I sucked in a sharp breath.

“Chessie.” I beckoned with my fingers and led her a few feet away. “Can you get the human to move on?” “What? Why?”

“That’s a neph.” I jerked my head toward the body. “I think we’ve stumbled into a battle.”

“More like the battle stumbled into us,” she grumbled. “Sure.”

We went back to where Monkey stared off into the clouds. Chessie went up to the human and whipped off her sunglasses. His eyes widened as he took a step back, but he froze when she started to speak.

“A rabbit ran out in front of you. Nothing unusual happened. Go on your way.”

His movements were jerky, but he turned and started to walk back to the truck cab.

“Will that work?” I asked.

“Probably.” Chessie put her shades back on. “Human minds are usually willing to suppress traumatic experiences.”

“This guy’s still alive.” Chance sat back on his haunches. “Don’t ask me how, but he has a pulse and is breathing.”

“That’s impossible.” I blinked. “No neph could have survived that. He fell at least 5,000 feet.”

“There’s no blood,” Chessie pointed out, “and he doesn’t look like a pancake. Do you think the armor he’s wearing protected him? It looks futuristic.”

A soft pop was the only warning we had before dozens of divs came out of nowhere and charged us.

I manifested a bow and a quiver of arrows and fired one after another, but these big buggers were quick.

I missed my first two shots, compensated for their speed, and hit the next two right where I wanted.

They crashed to the ground and dissolved.

“Bigfoots?” Chessie screamed. “ Really? ”

“Grab Monkey, get in the car, and get out of here!” I screamed back.

Chance flung out sleep bolts, which, while not lethal, were probably his most effective weapons against divs. At least it put them down. I fired arrow after arrow after arrow—and neither of us made a dent in their numbers.

Some of the divs broke off from the pack and headed for the front of the delivery truck. They were going for the human, and there was nothing any of us could do about it. A scream cut off, and I knew he was dead.

I fired into the herd of hairy bodies, but the divs suddenly wheeled and zipped after a pearly cloud. I whirled to see that Chessie hadn’t followed my orders. She stood square in the middle of the road with a pyx in her hand.

She’d called the human’s soul to her, and the divs followed it like fish after a lure.

Chance ran in front of her, his arms spread wide, and created a wall of golden power.

What is he doing?! He won’t be able to hold that for long. He’s going to get himself killed!

All I could do was continue firing arrows as I made my way over to them. Once Chance and I were back to back, he called out to Chessie to retreat back to the SUV. He pulled his wall with us while I shot more arrows.

We almost made it when Chance’s wall fizzled out.

The divs pressed their attack, and I sent Chance after the girls. He couldn’t do any more good on the front line.

Not that I’m doing much good, either. I was fast approaching my limit.

Fortunately, the neph chose that moment to crawl out of the crater he’d made in the road.

In his hand appeared a sword that ran with neon blue flames.

He leveled it at the divs, and a torrent of fire leapt forward to incinerate the front line.

He couldn’t hold it, though, and fell to one knee.

The fire stuttered and went out, and he toppled over.

With victory in their black eyes, the divs surged forward. One sliced my shoulder with its razor claws before I could get off another arrow, and I stumbled back with a howl of pain.

This is it. This is how we all die.

Then power, heavy and absolute, drove us all to our knees. I heard what sounded like a rasp sliding over wood and realized Monkey was singing.