Beautiful Dead 02 - Arizona (16 page)

mil ion miles through blackness before you come around.

We were at the Foxton junction. It was stil night-time and the storm was as bad as ever.

I had to hold on to Hunter to be able to stand up against the wind blowing down from the ridge. He was stil shaking, his eyes more black and sunken. Rain trickled down his temple, over the faded angel-wing tattoo where he'd been shot through the head.

'Lee was down here when the weather broke,' Hunter whispered, his shoulders hunched and teeth chattering like a man freezing to death.

The electric storm hurt him too bad he couldn't get back.'

Gasping, I took a look around at the row of fishermen's shacks by the racing creek. Al except one stood in darkness.

Hunter staggered through the wind and rain towards the single light. 'I came looking after I sent the others back. Don't worry, Darina -

Phoenix is safe for sure.'

But you're not!' I cried. I stumbled over my own feet it was so pitch

black. 'Every second you stay here, you get weaker!'

'I'm here for Lee,' he said through gritted teeth. 'The guy staying in this shack - he found Lee where he'd fal en, down by the creek. He dragged him under cover before I could get to him. I guess he thought he was doing good.'

'Under cover where?' Slowly I was getting my breath back, starting to think. It was clear I had to get Lee out of the rescuer-guy's hands and back in tow with Hunter. Then the two of them could get the hel out.

'He took him inside the house.'

'How long do I have?' I asked, calculating that I could hammer on the door and draw the man outside while Hunter stayed invisible and snuck in while the guy's back was turned.

'Not long.' Hunter could hardly open his mouth to speak, he was so >>o weak. I saw that he was risking everything for Lee. 'The lightning got to him. He passed out. Go, Darina!'

I stumbled forward, tip the step on to the porch. I used my fist to beat at the wooden door.

At first no one came. Inside the shack the guy was probably thinking that no way was he about to open his door to a second stranger on a night like this. Then maybe he thought someone had come looking for Lee, so the door gave a fraction.

I saw a pair of glittering eyes through the narrow slit. 'Help - you've got to come!' I yel ed, my hair plastered to my skul , rainwater streaming from me. 'My car got stuck in the gul ey out at the junction. I need you to tow me out!'

With a little more time I would have beefed up my story, I know that now.

The door stayed where it was.

'No can do,' a voice said. It sounded old and cranky. 'I have my hands ful with a young guy here. He fel in the creek.'

'Please!' I begged, trying to get a look inside.

'Don't know if he's alive or dead,' the old man said. 'Can't get a pulse or nothing, but I think he's breathing.'

The door was closing in my face. 'Let me look!' I said. 'I trained in first aid. Maybe I can help.'

It got me inside, but Hunter was out there, stil helpless. I needed to think fast if I was going to get Hunter hooked up with Lee.

Then my plans fel apart.

Lee lay on his back on a couch that doubled as the old guy's bed. At first glance you would say it was a corpse for sure - his face ghastly white, his mouth open, eyes closed. One arm hung limply off the side of the couch.

We were too late I felt my heart thud.

Then Lee moved. He turned his head towards me. I think he recognized me.

'Go ahead - check him out,' the old guy urged. There was an open whisky bottle on the table. I smel ed the alcohol on his breath.

Thud and then a rapid thump-thump-thump. My heart was racing as I

crouched down by Lee's side. His eyes wouldn't focus. I thought he didn't know me after al . 'It's me - Darina,' I whispered.

'Darina. Tel Hunter I'm sorry.' His voice came out as a whisper, so > > > slurred that I could hardly make it out.

'What did he say?' the old fisherman demanded, leaning over us with his lined, whiskery face and whisky breath.

'I'm going to get you out of here,' I leaned forward and promised Lee.

Too late! My mind told the truth and my heart went wild inside my chest.

Lee Stone was one of the Beautiful Dead revenants who would never find out the circumstance surrounding his passing. The storm had caught him and drained him of al his supernatural strength so that now he

looked like the corpse he real y was, head back against the grimy pil ow, one arm hanging limp. Where were those wings and death-heads, the force field that protected him? What could even Hunter do now?

Nothing. I knew the answer without having to speak it out loud.

No, it's me who's sorry, Lee,' I cried. Confused, the old guy backed off. 'Hunter tried to save you. He did everything he could.'

Lee's eyes showed that he'd heard me, but now he was too weak to talk. I took his cold hand and as I closed my fingers around it I saw crimson blood running down his arm from a wound on his shoulder -

sticky and already congealing even though it had only just appeared. And there was more blood oozing from his ribs and a thin trickle from the corner of his mouth.

I held his hand tight. Behind us the door flew open. A strong wind gusted and when it blew itself out, Lee had gone.

Lee's weird half-life/half-death slowed to nothing but for those of us left it raced on. Gently I laid his lifeless arm across his chest. The fisherman stood without speaking as what happens to the Beautiful Dead when they final y leave took place. First Lee's eyelids flickered closed, the oozing blood faded. Then the light appeared - a silver glimmer surrounding the corpse, and wings beating, not fierce and wild, but soft. The glow was

like a halo, slowly penetrating Lee's whole body, dissolving it and

making it glisten until gradual y he disappeared. Lee's would-be rescuer stared at an empty couch.

'You drank too much whisky,' I told the old fisherman harshly, leaving him to his confusion. Let this be another of the weird rumours to creep out of the mountains down into the El erton bars and diners. A

night of bad storms, a drunken man's tale ...

I quit the shack to look for Hunter. I cal ed his name along the dirt track, then down by the creek. I heard only the water rushing over boulders, felt the black current race at my feet.

I sat down on the ground. 'We were too late,' I murmured.

The only answer I got was the wild beating of wings, gathering over Foxton Ridge and sweeping into the val ey, and a horde of death-heads in

the darkness, gleaming yel owish-white, the domes of their skul s like smooth pebbles on a shore, their eye sockets black and fathomless.

Sadness weighed me down. I'd held Lee's hand and watched him leave for ever. Now Hunter was gone too - a shadow of himself, so weak that he might not make it out of the far side to a safe haven beyond the storm.

Lightning flashed. Thunder cracked. I sat by the creek and wept.

Dawn came and I was making my way up to the ridge, empty and aching, my hopes sunk lower than ever before. I walked to the water tower overlooking the barn then plunged down the hil , half running, stumbling, longing for the Beautiful Dead to come back to the far side.

The sky glowed pink, streaked with wispy blue-grey clouds. Water

drops fel from the aspen branches, puddling on the gravel earth. As the

sun rose, I watched steam rise from the barn roof.

So where are you? I asked Phoenix, Hunter, Arizona and the rest.

I thought back to a time before, when another storm had forced the Beautiful Dead to flee. I'd sat through the night, waiting for them to return, and it had been longer than I'd expected - a half day for them to

rest up and gather their strength, ready to make it back to the far side.

'And this is Thursday already,' I said out loud. This was serious time pressure and it weighed heavily on my shoulders. 'OK here's the deal!'

I fol owed my gut feeling that I had hours to fil and it was best not to 113

waste them hanging out there. So I headed back up to the ridge, along the deer track on to the dirt road where I hoped to hitch a ride. It was twenty minutes before the first vehicle showed up. The driver slowed to take a good long look at my drowned-rat appearance.

'You need a ride?' he said.

'To El erton.' I didn't care that he thought I was a homeless freak

caught out by last night's storm. I climbed into the cab of his truck.

'What happened to you?'

'My car got flooded out. I ended in a gul ey.' 'You live in El erton?'

I nodded. OK, so you're giving me a ride but I don 't need to give you my life story.

'How old are you?'

'Twenty,' I lied.

We swung off the dirt road on to the highway. 'Did you spend the whole night on the mountain?'

'Yeah.'

'You couldn't cal anyone?'

'No credit on my phone.' I sank down into the seat and closed my eyes to look like I was sleeping.

We cruised past Turkey Shoot Ridge into Centennial.

You can drop me here,' I said. I don't remember if I even said thanks as the guy pul ed up and I walked away.

I got no more than twenty paces down the street before Arizona stepped out from behind a parked car.

'Before you launch into anything, let me speak,' she said. Her green eyes flashed with impatience. 'We know what happened to Lee.'

'Hunter and I - we tried. Hunter risked everything.'

'I know. Lee was a good kid, that's why. The Beautiful Dead wil miss him. Hunter's taking it badly he figures he let him down.'

'Hunter made it back to limbo?' I asked anxiously.

'Yeah, he's safe with the others. They'l rest up and be here by midday.'

'You came alone?' I walked down the street with her, knowing it was a risk. 'What happens if someone sees you?'

Arizona pointed to the houses with their blinds stil drawn, their doors

locked. 'Everyone's stil asleep. You and I - we need to talk.'

'I'm on my way to Westra - to your folks' house. We don't have 114

much time.'

She nodded. 'No one knows that better than me. We have exactly thirty hours and fifteen minutes before my time is up. Which is why Hunter permitted me to return early.'

'Things have changed. These days he must trust you one hundred per

cent,' I murmured, stil edgy about the fact that we were on view. I pul ed Arizona into an al ey down the side of a smal block of apartments. 'I don't know why he should do that, after the way you acted.'

She shrugged me off. 'What do you know, Darina? Honestly I mean, what do you real y know?'

Where did I begin? I know you didn't tel me about Kyle Keppler and

Sable Jackson, or your kid brother. How am I supposed to help you if you hide stuff like that?'

She closed her eyes and sighed. 'Do you know what it's like when you need to protect someone you love?'

'Yeah - you put them first, above everything else. And I understand

that about Raven - the poor kid needs al the care he can get. But Kyle -

he's different.'

'You mean, he can take care of himself?' she muttered.

I remembered Kyle Keppler spinning his truck around, driving towards me, pul ing me out of my car and dumping me in the ditch. 'Jesus, Arizona, the guy's an animal.'

Leaning against the brick wal , she looked at me through half-closed eyes. 'You know, that's what people say about the Rohrs - Brandon and Phoenix.'

'No way. You can't make that comparison!'

She overrode me with one of those old, arrogant flicks of her wrist. 'They say Brandon can only settle an argument with his fists, and Phoenix took after his brother.'

'You know that's not true.'

'But it's how it looks from the outside - that's what we're talking

about here.'

'Are you saying that Kyle is like Phoenix?' I was fired up and ready to

walk away, to leave Arizona to her Beautiful Dead fate and never speak to her again. 'Phoenix didn't cheat on me, remember.'

She gave a smal nod. 'And if he had, would you stil love him?'

I took a sharp breath, unable to give an answer that didn't hack the legs from under my own argument.

You see - you don't stop having feelings for someone, even when

they hurt you. You hang on in and hope it wil go away.'

'But Sable was pregnant, they were going to get married ... '

'I know don't tel me. I should've walked away. I did try.'

For a long time I stood in silence, shaking my head. 'What about Kyle? After you knew the ful story about Sable and the baby, did he finish it with you on the spot?'

He tried to. But he was like me he couldn't help himself. He would back off for a few days but then he would cal me again.'

Saying he stil loved you?'

She nodded. 'And I would go around to Mike's Motors to see him. Other guys - Brandon, Jon Jackson - might be there and I would have to make some excuse.'

I pictured the dirty looks and sly comments flying in Arizona's direction. 'You know something that wasn't love, it was masochism.'

'An obsession,' she sighed. 'But I saw a side of Kyle you wouldn't believe. Not scary, but funny. He goofs around and makes me feel good about myself ... He did,' she corrected herself. 'He understood the way my mind worked. With him I could be myself.'

'That's real y sad,' I told her. You couldn't be yourself with anyone except Kyle. I get it now. At least, I think I do.'

'So you see why Kyle needs you to stay away from Forest Lake - to keep his relationship with Sable and his kid,' Arizona stated. 'Tile only time he ever got mad with me was when I showed up at his house.'

'That's crazy. Why did you do that?' The old saying about pots and kettles might spring to mind. I mean, hadn't I done exactly that?

'To sit quietly in my car and watch. I wasn't about to walk in on him

and Sable - I just wanted to see them together, maybe convince myself that it was over between Kyle and me.'

'But he spotted you?'

She nodded. 'He didn't touch me or lose it with me, but he said never,