Part 25 (1/2)
Another alarm. And another.
”There isnat a right thing to say to my family. Iave burned too many bridges.” He hooked her to him.
”He said theyad buried your remains.” She looked back at him. ”Ready?”
”Letas go.”
The alarms were sounding continuously now. Frigid air blasted them in the face.
They jumped.
They were free-falling less than a thousand feet from the ground.
She counted to three, then yelled, ”Do it!”
Warlord pulled their rip cord. The updraft snapped them from full screaming downward fall to a slow, peaceful descent. A slow, peaceful, freezing-a.s.s-cold descent.
Behind her, Warlord maneuvered them to face the impact.
He wrapped his arms around her as the glorious, sleek bird of a Cessna cascaded into the stark, rocky cliff of Acantilado Mountain. The ball of flame exploded, then disintegrated. The concussion blasted them across the tree-tops and down a slope.
With the two of them hooked together, and all the weight they carried, they descended fast. Too fast. They had no clear s.p.a.ce to land. ”Cross your legs!” Karen heard, and complied just as the snowy forest reached up to snag them. She flinched as her boot hit a tree limb.
Then they were in the woods, snow spilling off the branches that slapped them for their impertinence. The scent of pine filled the air.
They were headed for a tree trunk, the biggest tree trunk shead ever seen. Warlordas arms tightened around her. She threw her arms up to protect her head.
And something grabbed the parachute and jerked them to a stop.
The jolt knocked the breath out of her.
Then, with a huge crack, the branch that held them broke. They plummeted to the ground, smacking boughs, until Karen landed face-down in a s...o...b..nk, Warlord on her back. The impact broke through the crust. Ice packed in under her face guard, filled her eyes and her mouth, and brought her to immediate full consciousness. The weight of Warlord and the supplies made her flail helplessly, desperate to take a breath.
He rolled over, pulling her out of the snow, and while she yanked off her helmet he unhooked the strap that bound them.
While she spit and wiped, he came to his feet, pulled off his helmeta”and laughed.
She couldnat believe it.
”Whatas wrong with you?” She cleaned a chunk of hard-packed snow out of her cleavage. ”We almost dieda”more than once we almost dieda”weare still in serious danger, and youare laughing.”
”But we didnat die, and what a ride!” He laughed again, and shrugged out of the parachute harness. ”Wasnat it spectaular?”
”No.”
”Come on, Karen.” He hugged her to his side. ”Gravity won. We got to the ground. Thatas a good omen.”
”Youare crazy.”
”One of us has to be. And look.” He pointed to his face. ”The cold brought the swelling down. I can open my eye a littlea”and I can see.”
He was right. Where the venom had touched, his skin still looked appallinga” crusted-over and red. But his lid was better, and his eye was clear and moved freely.
Her relief made her admit, ”Then I guess all this snow is good for something.” He watched her wiggle around, pulling snow from places that should never have seen snow. ”Need any help digging that out?”
”No.”
”Really. Iad be glad to help.”
Sick as he was, he was smiling. Flirting. Happy to be on the ground, glad his eye was undamaged, and somehow sh.o.r.ed up with the unshakable belief of idiotic manhood that if he could just put his warm hands on her freezing body, shead collapse into his arms in a pa.s.sionate heap. ”Youare incorrigible.”
”So Iave been told.” With a carefree shrug, he gave up . . . for the moment.
He put on his snowshoes, then helped her on with hers. Glancing up at the broken branch above them, he said, ”If the Varinskis search, thatas going to betray us.”
”Weare over seven thousand feet. Itas twenty degrees. The storm is starting.” She held out a gloved hand and let a snowflake drift into it. ”The Varinskis are the least of our problems.”
”True. The snow will cover the wreckage and our tracks.”
”If we donat get to a safe place, the snow will bury us alive.”
He collected the parachute. ”Come on, while I can walk, and letas find somewhere to set up camp.”
”And then what?”
”And then we will live through this . . . or die together.” He kissed her cold cheek. ”If I have to die, I want it to be with you.”
She pulled a hat and scarf out of her bag and wrapped herself up. ”Letas make sure we live. Iave got unfinished business with the Varinskis. ” She shot him a meaningful glance. ”And with you.”
Chapter Twenty-eight.
Karen saw Warlord stagger, go down on one knee. Lines of pain etched his face, and the venomas mark etched his skin.
She stopped, gasping. ”We have to set up camp.”
”We havenat gone far enough.” He rose to his feet. He sank back down. ”Not far to the rendezvous point.”
The excitement of the jump had kept them on their feet, but after a mile in the snowy woods with a snowstorm closing in, that excitement had failed. Everything about Warlorda”his fading color, his dull eyes, the sweat that beaded on the exposed part of his browa”mirrored her own adrenaline crash, and the creeping pain and paralysis of the venom.
”It doesnat matter. We simply canat go any farther.”
”Weave got to. Weare too close to the spot where we landed. Weare too easy for the Varinskis to find.”
”Right. You go ahead. Let me know how that works out.” She looked around for the best place to set up camp. When she looked back, head quietly pitched forward on his face.
She dragged herself over, flipped him onto his back, and checked his pulse. He was giving off flashes of fever that should have melted him right through the snow. ”What did you expect?” she asked his p.r.o.ne body. ”Five hours ago a magical big-a.s.s cobra bit you. Four hours ago you beat up Wonder Falcon. An hour ago we crashed your plane. Did you think you were Superman?”