Michael (The Curse) (The Airel Saga, Book 3: Part 5-6) (15 page)

She glided her hands up his arms, caressing his face with her fingertips, sending chills throughout his body as she returned his love, his kiss.

His mind raced, everything crashing to a stop all at once. He had to pull away—it was just overwhelming, too much. Eyes snapping open, he released her. Her gaze pierced him and held him entranced. He didn’t want to move. Or even breathe. “Sorry,” he finally said.

She blushed, whispering, “I can’t say I don’t enjoy it.” Her eyes flashed at him. “But come on,” she said, gasping.

“I know,” he said, grinning widely with a dash of evil. “I know. Propriety.”

“How dare you.” She laughed, punching him lightly in the sternum.

He staggered back, clutching his chest as if she had dealt him a deathblow.

“Very funny,” she said, rolling her eyes.

“Come on,” he said, offering his hand. “Let’s head back, love.”

She blushed. After they had regained the road’s surface and had walked on a little, she said, “I like that.”

Michael felt like his heart was going to cave in. So much ecstasy, so much elation—he was completely hooked. Finally kissing her, his Airel, had been more amazing than he had ever imagined it would be. He was standing on the summit of Everest.

But something was off; something was being held back in reserve. He didn’t know what it was or why.

***

AS THEY APPROACHED, MICHAEL could see from Kim and Ellie’s body language that a dispute was in progress.

“How did they find us, anyway?” Kim was glaring at Ellie.

Ellie pointed a finger. “That’s the question, now isn’t it? How did they find us, and how did they find us so fast?”

“I don’t know. How about you tell me,” Kim shouted.

“Wow, Kim,” Airel said, “you’re not acting like your normal, fun-loving self.”

Kim’s head jerked toward Airel. “Well, I’m not in the best of frickin’ moods here.”

“Duh.”

Kim crouched down and grabbed fistfuls of her own hair and screamed as loud as she could at the ground. It was repellent, like a temper tantrum. The others all leaned back and stared at her in disbelief.

“Kim!” Airel shouted. “Chill.”

Kim looked up at her with bitter tears streaming down her face. “I’m sorry, Airel,” she sniffed; her eyes were wild, darting all around. “I just don’t know how much more of this I can take.” She collapsed to her knees, sobbing.

Airel knelt at her side and began speaking to her in soothing tones, rubbing her back gently. Kim just leaned into her and sobbed harder.

Ellie looked at Michael. “She needed a good cry, that girl,” she said softly, trying to keep Kim from hearing her.

He nodded.

Airel looked up at Michael and then to Ellie, as if trying to read them. She turned back to Kim and kept on rubbing her back.

“We need to get out of Dodge,” Michael said quietly to Ellie. They stood slightly apart from Airel and Kim. His arms were crossed and he was looking down.

“You’re preaching to the choir, boy,” she said. “Just as soon as the weak link gets it together,” she said lowly, engaging him in what amounted to a tactical conversation.

Michael did nothing, simply waiting on Kim. “You know what all this was about, don’t you?”

“What, the tears?” Ellie said.

“No.” He looked at her. “No. The chase. The ambush. The fight.”

Ellie looked momentarily scared, but she narrowed her eyes. “What? They attacked and we prevailed. What more could there be, besides the bigger question of how they found us, and so quickly?”

“No, that’s not it. Besides, it was mostly Airel who did the ‘prevailing.’” He paused, looking at her accusatorily. “You’ve never seen that kind before, I take it? The three?”

Ellie was motionless. She stared directly at him, right at his eyes, and said nothing.

“The ones with the fungus. The quick ones. They’re a different kind. They’re like a specialized weapons system. You’ve heard of Special Forces? Navy SEALS? Marine Force Recon?”

“Sure.”

“They’re like those, only,” he sighed, “only pure evil, Ellie. Those kind don’t come from just anywhere, and they don’t go just anywhere. So I’ll ask you again: do you know what it means?”

“More than I can say,” she said, looking away.

“It means we’ve graduated,” he said. “From being in trouble to OMG, we’re in big fat trouble. Get it?”

“I get a lot more than you think, guv.”

“I’m sure you do,” he responded harshly, trying to corner her.

“So then,” she retorted, “where are we headed?”

“You play much chess?” he asked.

“What?” She looked back to him.

Michael hadn’t stopped looking at her, his arms still crossed across his chest. “I said, do you play much chess?” His tone was flat and ominous.

She chuckled. “Can’t say that I do.”

“The only real defense, one-on-one, against an enemy knight is to close the gap. Get in close. Bring the fight to the enemy. Same thing as in a fistfight. Get in close, and you minimize your opponent’s power.”

“All right, then …” Her eyebrows were arched expectantly.

“Like I said. And we have to get the heck outta here.” He looked off into the distance, where the train had passed earlier.
If we’re lucky, another train will come along soon.

“You said those fungus-types—”

“Anti-Cherubim.”

“Very well, anti-Cherubim. You said they only come from one place?”

“I said they don’t come from just anywhere.”

“Right, and we’re taking the fight to them because it’s safer to do so, I gather.”

“Correct.”

So where’s ‘there’?”

“South Africa. For starters. Because they’re an Original Kind, very old, and if we don’t find them there, we might have to go all the way back to the Tigris and Euphrates, the ‘Cradle of Civilization,’ in order to find and confront—”

Kim interrupted them. “I need to pee.” She was standing up, holding her elbows, looking horrible and miserable. Airel stood by her with a look of concern on her face. Everybody looked at each other as awkward silence fell. “I’ll be right back,” she said, walking off toward the wreckage.

Most of the fire had burned out or burned down and the rain had ebbed, the storm system moving on to drench other places. The massive logs remained, however, intact and strewn across the road. Kim rounded the end of one of them and disappeared behind it.

“Be careful,” Airel called after her.

“Yeah, yeah,” came the dull reply. “I’ll scream if I see a roach or something.”

Airel turned back to Michael and Ellie. “Have you two figured out what to do next?”

Ellie wore an undisguised look of surprise on her face. “You’re agreeable suddenly.”

“Yeah, well, this sucks. I want to get warm and dry.” Airel looked directly at Ellie. “I figure you two Type A’s would have some orders to bark, that’s all.”

Michael just shook his head and smiled. “Actually, I was hoping to hop a train.” He pointed to the tracks in the distance. “Just gotta make our way across that open range. Maybe a couple of miles across.”

“So we’re going for a walk,” Airel said.

“Yep,” he said.

“Do we all have everything we need?” Ellie asked. “Because we’re not coming back.”

From the direction where Kim had gone came an exclamation of surprise. It sounded like she was in trouble.

Airel looked suddenly very worried. “Kim.” She bolted for her and the other two followed. “Kim. I’m coming, honey.”

Airel skidded around the end of the log to find Kim standing upright, holding a duffel. “Kim. Are you okay?”

“Yeah.” Kim said. “Look. I found my bag.”

“Oh, for—” Ellie cursed.

“Kim. You scared me,” Airel said. “I thought you were in trouble.”

“Nope.” Kim said. “No roaches. But I got my stuff.” She patted the loosely packed duffel now strapped across her shoulder.

“Good,” said Michael. “All is right with the world.”

Michael glanced at the smashed FBI car. He sighed. “Well, I guess we’d better get moving. We’ve got more than one kind of pursuer after us.”

CHAPTER VI

THE FOUR WALKED BACK up the road, right up the double yellow, back the way they had come when he was driving. Michael wanted to leave as little obvious sign of their continued existence as possible. After about half a mile, at a curve in the road and a sign marked U.S. 97, they got off and took to the wilderness.

There were no fences, just wide-open high desert. The Cascades skimmed the moisture out of everything that came in off the Pacific, leaving their eastern side barren and dry, save for the fingers of green that crowded the draws—mountain streams and rivers that ran east, counter to the mighty Columbia.

That’s where they were headed: the Columbia River. A massive body of water, irresistible in its rush to the sea, wide, deep, cold, fast, dangerous. Right along the river, freight trains more than two hundred cars long snaked along, headed upriver and inland, probably every couple of hours, as far as Michael knew. Once again, he had to rely on gut instinct to get by. He tried as hard as he could not to let his training affect him too much—all the demonic files of experience that now, he was thankful, could be turned inward against themselves, against all their past masters, in self-destruction.

He caught himself more and more crying out in his heart and mind to El. It was crazy. But somehow crazy made good sense, in a way unexplainable with words.

Michael walked close to Airel. He wanted to be near her, to see her face in the darkness, to feel her presence.

Ellie broke the silence. “You all should know… I was able to get my phone up and running. I texted a friend back there. He can get us a plane, but he’s at least a day away and we can’t meet him near any big cities.”

Kim looked confused. “Plane?”

“Yeah. You’ve packed your passports, I hope? My bloke can get us in, but we’ll need a safe place to land—we’ve gotta figure that out as we go. He’ll meet us in Arlington and we can take off from the Muni there.”

Kim laughed aloud but then choked it off, wide eyed. “I don’t have a passport.” She looked to Michael with a panicked look on her face.

“All the more reason to meet him away from an international airport, then. If we’re to hop a jet to South Africa, we’ll need to fly under the radar. Quite literally, maybe.”

“I don’t have a passport,” Kim said again.

“Michael,” Airel said, “what’s all this about South Africa?”

“Yeah, I meant to tell you.” He took a moment to try to explain to them why they had to go, why they had to take the fight to the enemy. “It may be safest for everyone involved.” He looked at Airel with a pained expression, hoping he wouldn’t have to say out loud that he was concerned for her family back home. Among a great many other things.

“I don’t want to go,” Kim said, trudging along. “I don’t want to go to Africa. Why Africa, anyway?”

“Kim, I hate to say this, but you’re just going to have to trust me,” Michael said.

She huffed at him and stopped, forcing the rest of the group to stop as well. She crossed her arms.

“Kim …” Michael said.

“No. Just shut up. I’m sick of this. I’m sick of running, sick of walking, sick of crashing and freaking burning. I’m cold and wet. I need sleep and food—”

“Kim,” he interrupted, “we all feel the same. Trust me, I know what you need—we all need it. That’s why we’re headed this way. To the next train.” He gestured to the river, the freeway, the train tracks in the distance. “Things could be worse.”

Kim gawked at him. “How?”

“You could be dead, for one. Kim, this is our last remaining option. And it’s a good one, considering where it’ll lead us. And you know what, you’re alive and you’re with friends.” He pointed to her bag. “And you found your stuff.”

“Are you serious? We’re hopping a train like a bunch of hobos?”

“Yep.” He smiled at her and then looked up at a clear sky, the Milky Way easily visible in the dark firmament from horizon to horizon. “Plus, it’s not raining, Kim. Come on.” He turned and began to walk. “We need to keep moving.”

Ellie followed him. Ariel stayed, her body half turned to go, half turned to Kim, a look of concern on her face. “I know it’s hard, Kim, but you’ve gotta keep going. I promise,” Airel said, touching her arm, “soon we’ll grab a hotel or something and try to rest. But for now we’ve got to keep going if we don’t want to …”

“What, die?” Kim asked.

Airel paused. “I guess so.”

Kim looked at her, the expression on her face complicated. “This sucks.”

Airel nodded and gently pulled on her to get her moving. They trailed along behind the other two.

Michael called back to them, “It’s not far now. Maybe another fifteen minutes of walking.”

“Oh, yeah, well, I’m timing you, dude,” Kim said.

***

THEY SAT UNDER A bridge in the darkness, waiting near the tracks for the next train.

Ariel hugged herself and asked, “How far is—what, Arlington—from here?”

Ellie said, “Probably no more than fifty miles.”

“Yeah, and we’re jumping a freight train to get there?” Airel continued.

“Don’t worry,” Michael said, “they move pretty slowly on this slog of the railroad. It’s a long climb and they’re really heavy.”

Kim sat looking dazed, her hands playing in the dirt. The eastern horizon was threatening the sunrise.

“It had better hurry up and get here quick,” Airel said, “if we’re going to get away with jumping on board without being seen.”

Michael exhaled, releasing stress.

“Michael, are we safe now?” Airel asked.

He looked at her, considering things. “Yes.”

She studied his eyes. “You’re lying.”

“Airel—”

“No, I get it. It’s sweet. But you don’t need to protect me. I can take care of myself. If I haven’t proven that yet, I don’t know what I have to do.”

He wagged his head a little in acquiescence. “True. I guess you’re right.” He looked back at her. “Sorry. I’m not trying to keep anything from you. I want you to know that. I’m just thinking about lots of stuff, trying to process it all. I feel responsible for you. All of you.”

“Rubbish,” Ellie said. “You’re not responsible for me, Demon Boy.”

“Stop calling him that,” Airel said. “Don’t call him that ever again.”