Conduit (18 page)

            At first, he couldn’t see
her—couldn’t tell what was going on.  That only made things worse.  Even if his
worst nightmare played out, not seeing and not knowing crippled him.

            Still, he forced himself
to keep moving until he’d reached the corner of the tent and could peer
around.  He expected that guy—the tall, lanky man in his late twenties—to be
there, up close and personal with Elizabeth while the
dybbuk
inside of
him did whatever it was that the
dybbuks
seemed to want.  That was
happening, all right; however, what he didn’t expect was that Clarissa would be
standing next to him, both of them looking down at Elizabeth with the same
hungry expression, like she was their meal ticket.

            Clarissa leaned over
Elizabeth, almost as though trying to see if she were breathing.

            Unless she were working
with the
dybbuks
.

            “No.” Lev’s mind reeled.

            But if Clarissa weren’t
working with the
dybbuks
, she would have called out a warning, wouldn’t
she?  He had to believe she would’ve, and that meant that whoever or whatever
Clarissa was, she wasn’t a scared teenager, and his worst nightmare was just
about to come true unless he did something fast.

            He didn’t know if he
could race anywhere, but he knew he could swing the sword, if necessary.  With
that in mind, he lumbered forward.  Around him, the world seemed distorted as
the weakness washed over him yet again.  Briefly, he wondered if Evan and Celia
would see him before he somehow made it inside the tent—if he made it inside. 
He expected to hear one of the three of them call his name and tell him to stop,
yet that never happened.

            Instead, he staggered
forward, ignoring his blurred vision as best he could.  It wasn’t easy.  Right
then, there were at least two of Clarissa.  One was bad enough, and both were
leaning over Elizabeth, doing something he couldn’t see.

            “Get away from her!” he snarled,
raising the sword.

            Clarissa never moved, but
the
dybbuk
shifted, the head jerking in a way that reminded Lev that
while the bodies were human the spirits controlling them were anything but.

            “Lev, you don’t look so
good.  Perhaps your sister was right—that you should be lying down.”  She
smiled and lifted her left hand.  Then he felt himself flying through the air. 
He cleared the tent’s entrance before his body hit the ground.

            Pain shot through him,
leaving him gasping.  A million questions raced through him, fogging his
brain.  Who was Clarissa, and what had she had to do with Elizabeth’s abduction?

            He shifted, propping his
body up on his elbows so he could struggle to his feet when he realized that
Clarissa had stepped ever closer, the
dybbuk
right beside her, its
vacant eyes settling on him.

            “I’d stay down,” she
warned, pushing her palm toward him.  The motion flattened him against the
ground. 

            Gasping, he forced
himself to look at her, trying to make sense of everything, most especially why
she was smiling.

            “You do remember me,
don’t you, Lev?”

            He didn’t know if it were
her voice or her words that made him feel like spiders were suddenly crawling all
over him.  Maybe it was both, and as the words spun round in his head, he
puzzled over their meaning.

            “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 straightened, 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.

            “Elizabeth.”  He said her
name like a prayer and leaned close, basking in her warmth.

            Her eyes widened.  He
wasn’t sure if his edging closer had caused the reaction or his voice.  Really,
he didn’t think it mattered.

            Her body suddenly tensed,
which caused his shoulders and stomach to stiffen.  Another waiting game.  It
shouldn’t be like this.

            “Are you feeling all
right?”  He pulled back slightly just in case she needed room.

            “I…don’t know.” She slowly
faced him until he felt her dark eyes on him.  Her expression seemed
so…neutral—something he’d never expected.  It was like he was starting all over
with her. He sat up, and suddenly, for some reason, facing this new situation
seemed more tolerable from an upright position than it had lying on his back.
Maybe it was just another of his human instincts taking over, which would
hardly surprise him.  He was definitely becoming more and more familiar with
his sudden humanity than he’d ever thought possible.