Part 21 (1/2)

Half-paddling, half-walking, it chased me toward the middle of the lake. The cold water quickly chilled me to the bone and it got harder to stay afloat, let alone make headway. I was fully dressed, wearing all my gear, and tiring fast.

Where the h.e.l.l was Will?

”T-tink?” I said, my teeth chattering. ”This isn't g-going to work. F-fly me out of here.”

I'll refrain from the ”I told you so” lecture until later.

Life tingled in my limbs and I rose out of the water, dripping. I pulled my knife free of its sheath, thinking I'd land on the creature and be done with it-Will's kill or not. Then it rose to meet me, its giant bat's wings pelting me with cold air and water droplets.

c.r.a.p, I'd forgotten it could fly.

Worse-now it was on fire again.

I zoomed back toward the trees, hoping to get lost in the copse where it couldn't follow. Unfortunately, I found out the hard way that it could fly faster than me, and a searing heat clamped onto my left ankle. I screamed and tried to yank my leg back, but it held on with flaming claws. My wet pants smoldered and I could feel my skin cooking underneath.

The monster dragged me to the ground just short of the trees. Without letting go of my leg, it said in a voice like loose gravel, ”So weak. Too easy, no matter what the Dark One said.”

I shuddered as the heat from its body blasted mine. The only reason I hadn't caught fire was because I was wet, but not even that would protect me for long. I struggled to lift my knife, but it pressed its other foot to my right shoulder and I screamed again as the cloth melted against my skin.

Then, out of nowhere, a black dart slammed into its eye. The monster roared and let me go. I curled into a tiny ball of distant pain as Will stalked by, his face like death. He slipped my knife from my hand, growling, ”Need to borrow this.”

The creature had stumbled back toward the water and I fought to stay conscious to watch Will drive it far enough into the lake to extinguish its fire. Without the flame, it looked vulnerable, tired. Overmatched.

With one swipe, Will slashed my knife's blade through its throat and red-orange blood sizzled on the water's surface.

Then I pa.s.sed out.

Chapter Twenty-Five.

”Sir ... Take him back?”

”Where? He's ... Get the captain ... ”

I panted in shallow breaths, agony lacing every cell in my body. My world had been reduced to the burns on my ankle and shoulder, a universe of pain, and I went in and out of consciousness. Each time I came to, I silently begged to black out again.

”Tink?” I whispered. She would help.

No answer.

Had she abandoned me? I squeezed my eyes closed and tried to let the darkness take me.

”Go for Kelly ... Cut them off ...”

”What happened out there!” Johnson, shouting. ”Why didn't he have cover?”

”False trail ... Got turned around ... Swear the forest moved, sir.” Will, sounding hoa.r.s.e and near to his breaking point. ”I don't know how.”

Hands pa.s.sed over my face, light as a feather and cool. Muddled, I wondered if Ella had found me. Even though moving was a lesson in torture, I reached into my pants pocket to touch the St. Christopher medal, needing its grace and hers.

It was gone.

I'd been forsaken by everything.

”Hold on, son,” a soft voice said. ”I know it hurts.”

My eyes fluttered open and there was Dad, his face gray and pinched. I blinked back tears. ”Burned.”

”I know. I know you are,” he said. ”It's going to be okay. They're second degree, but we can treat them out here.”

From the way my skin screamed, I thought the beast had seared me to the bone. ”Hurts.”

”Kelly,” Dad barked, turning into scary Officer Archer in an instant. ”Morphine. Now.”

”He'll lose consciousness again,” Kelly said, a shadow in my peripheral vision.

Dad rested a hand on my head. ”That's the idea.”

A pinp.r.i.c.k later, I went under for good.

”So, you like fire?” The Dark One asks, his voice so frostbitten it burns.

Despite his coldness, despite a blinding dark, I can feel heat. ”Do what you want to me. Just let my sister go.”

He laughs. ”There had to be three, Matthew. And so there are.”

Mamie screams, each sob timed to the throbbing ache from my burns. I strain and pull, but my body isn't my own in this place, and I'm left stuck, listening to my sister beg for death.

And this time I couldn't wake up.

I came to, groggy and aching all over, sometime after nightfall. I had no idea if one day had pa.s.sed, or multiple days. Gingerly, I moved my ankle and found it sore but not excruciating. The same with my shoulder. The skin was tight and itchy, but I'd take that over what I'd felt before As I stretched, my hand b.u.mped something: my knife's handle. Instantly, a long sigh of relief filled my skull.

I thought those idiots would never get the hint! Tink huffed. William was so upset he let that blowhard spirit of his talk over me.

”I'm a little out of it.” I swallowed; my throat was desert dry and scratchy. ”What?”

William took your knife to finish the fire creature then he forgot to give it back! Tink sounded p.i.s.sed. It wasn't until I gave him the headache to end all headaches that he realized what was wrong. I mean, really, how can I heal you when I'm tied to him?

So many questions coming out of that statement, I didn't know where to start. ”Tied to him?”

I didn't think another wielder could handle me, and it was probably only because of the situation. Well, and I was compliant about it-at first-but he stripped you of your blade while you were down. If I'd been able to help sooner, I wouldn't have let you suffer so long. Sometimes these men vex me to no end.

She rattled off a long string of words in her own language, cursing based on the tone, and I finally understood a little better. Every time I'd been hurt-starting with the time I'd accidentally sliced myself open in Peru-Tink had sped up my healing process. Today was no exception, and I was tremendously thankful, but I also felt guilty. I'd done the same thing to Will in Australia; I'd taken his knife to fight while he was badly injured. We'd have to remember how this worked in the future.

”What day is it?”