Part 21 (1/2)

The creek slowed and swirled and began to settle; the island brush reappeared, bent and stripped of leaves, s.h.i.+ny wet. Dismally muddied, Parker approached the scoured bank; he made a few steps toward the footbridge and halted. Two long tree trunks it had been, with s.p.a.ced crosspieces of wooda”some old, some newly replaced and bright in contrast to the othersa”and laid across the width of the creek, high above the water. Heavy, st.u.r.dy . . . not going anywhere.

Or so Brenna would have said.

Except it was no longer there; it wasn't even in sight.

Brenna wiped the dripping water from her face and sat back on her heels, knees pointed downhill, to make a rag of her s.h.i.+rt hem and run it around the rifle barrel. She swiped a hand down each side of Druid's face, muzzle to ears, and removed the water sparkling there. There was no haste to her movements; she was here, Parker was there, and never the twain to meet. She didn't have to make the decision to pull the trigger; she didn't have to try to run. And if there was something of a dazed shock in the quality of her movement . . . then well there ought be.

She had to tell Masera. Forget the dogfights, forget what she'd done to him the night before and how they'd stared at one another at the threshold of her house. Never mind the things it had stirred in her, the feelings she didn't recognize and didn't know what to do about. He was the one who could put this into perspective, and who could tell her what to do next. How to protect them from the darkness.

If anyone could.

Silence slowly overtook the roar of the flash flood, leaving them in unnatural quieta”though not for long.

”You shouldn't have done that.” Parker stood across from her again. Just as miraculously as it had overflowed, the water was back to normal, gurgling along in altered creek channels. The island, scrubbed clean to the dirt between what brush had remained rooted, was as bare as she'd ever seen it. The upstream edge had seined out an acc.u.mulation of debrisa”sticks, leaves, an old horseshoe, the proverbial old shoe. The stepping stones between it and the bank on either side were clearly exposed, but Parker made no attempt to descend to them. No, he stood there and glowered at her from beneath lowered brows, and repeated, ”You shouldn't have done that.”

Brenna said simply, ”I didn't.”

He laughed, as dark and low as the forces that now shaped his life. ”You did,” he said, and his gold hair glinted ruddy in the light from the setting sun; it felt like more of an omen than anything she'd seen so fara”as if she, in the presence of one miracle, was suddenly able to read omens. ”Whether you know it or not, you did it. You and whatever puny little G.o.d you first called to this place. Did you even know what you were doing, way back when?”

”No,” Brenna said, almost a whisper, though she suspected he somehow heard it anyway. ”Do you know what you're doing now?”

A strange, conflicted look pa.s.sed over his features, so quickly that she wasn't even sure what she'd seen. Hesitation. Doubt. As if in that moment, he actually thought about what he'd gotten into, what he was aiding and abetting and causing. As if she'd managed to touch something of him that had once been more human than what lived in him now.

And then the anger and hatred returned tenfold, and she had the feeling he'd make her pay for that moment.

”I know exactly what I'm doing,” he said. ”Which means that you haven't got a chance. I want this spring, Brenna Fallon. Honey. I want the land it's on. I'm even willing to pay for it.”

Money, she thought, probably wasn't what mattered to him anymore, anyway. Why not pay for it?

”And you'd best take me up on that offer.”

For that instant, she found herself tempted. He was right; she had no idea what she was doing and she had about as much chance of getting through any escalation of powera”where did one go from instant flood? Fire? Tornado? Fast-moving glacier?a”as she had of controlling his darkness. So why not give him the land, that which she'd so recently contemplated leaving behind by choice, simply so she could make her own choices? Why not walk away, when the rabies and the chaos had already taken hold?

Because you can't outrun a plague, you idiot.

And because she simply couldn't bear to be the one who handed Parker's darkness its anchor point of power. If it was strong and restless now, what would it become with a G.o.d's well of power to feed it?

”You're right,” she said, hearing her own voice grow steadier, louder. Enjoy it while it lasts. ”I'd best take you up on your offer. But you know I won't.”

He grinned at her. A nasty grin, the sky fading behind him. Oh, Lord, she was going to get caught out here after dark. He said, ”I hoped you wouldn't. It wouldn't have been as much fun. You know, lately I've imagined ripping that hair out of your head fistful by fistful. I should thank you for the opportunity.”

Not the same man she'd first met out here weeks ago. Not at all. That man had been an easy liar, not much concerned with things like honor and truth, but not malevolent, either.

This man was malevolent. Changed. And he had something hungry in his expression.

Hungry for her.

Druid growled.

”You've got that right,” Brenna muttered at him, smoothing down the hackles he'd raised. She glanced again at the skya”could she get home before dark?a”and at Parker, trying to gauge him. What he might do if she simply got to her feet and left him there.

What could he do? He was stuck on the other side.

And that's when Druid whined. His fearful whine, the warning whine. Reminding her that while she was out of Parker's reach, the darkness had no such boundaries. And that she couldn't depend on another miracle, when she had no idea how or even if she'd called the last one. ”Shhh,” she said, nonsensically enough, even as she dreaded what she feared would come next.

That trickle of breath-sucking dread she'd finally come to recognize. The hair standing up on the back of her neck, gooseb.u.mping down her already chilled arms. The breeze rising, lifting the strands of her long thick hair, black in this light and without the chestnut streaks that spoke of suns.h.i.+ne and light-hearted days in this very pasture.

Sunny's b.l.o.o.d.y collar tossed aside by her barn.

What would remain of her?

Nothing, if she just swayed here on her knees waiting for the inevitable.

But the inevitable was here.

Roaring across the bottom of the pasture like a directional tornado, it tore up chunks of sod and sticks and debris, a blotch of midnight in the twilight air, heading straight for her.

Parker only grinned. Fearless. In control.

Brenna didn't think. There was no time for thinking. She did the only thing left to her. She threw herself over the spring, over the grave of her old companion. And as darkness thundered up the hill for her, ripping through the creek, shredding what brush remained on the island, churning a wide path up the hill, she dropped the rifle and yanked Druid's leash, jerking him right off his feet and into the area she'd always considered part of the spring.

Too much for a st.u.r.dy little dog who'd already pushed his limits for the day. Druid landed already shrieking, not that Brenna could hear him above the maelstrom that churned around thema”around thema”not touching them. It deafened her, oppressive enough that her ears popped and she, too, screamed, a mindless, gut-level scream of protest and fear. But within the sphere of the spring the air barely stirred, and when Druid's struggles took him to the edge of that calm, Brenna hauled him in close, throwing herself atop him and squinching her eyes shut against the onslaught from without and withina”and now from beneath. For Druid flipped and flung himself, whacking his solid skull against her mouth, her nose, her foreheada”

No, Druida”no!

Someone else's familiar voice in her head and she held him tighter, heedless of the claws that gouged her arms and legsa”

Wails of grief, wails of fear and loss and Emily's voice moaning Jill's name over and over and unfamiliar voices crying their own sorrow, a deep and gibbering laughter underlying it alla”

And Druid shrieked and Brenna screamed and held him tight and the darkness tightened in around them until her ears were agony and her head felt like it would implode and it seemed like this was all her world had ever been and ever would bea”

And then it stopped.

Then there was utter silence, and Druid went quiescent beneath her, so flaccid she thought she'd smothered him to death and held her own breath until she felt the jerk of his chest as he panted.

She couldn't hear it yet. All she could hear was a ringing in her ears, and then her own harsh, gulping breaths through a throat raw and abused. ”Shhh, shhh,” she told Druid, and couldn't hear that, either.

But as she lifted her head and shoved her hair aside, she saw star- and moonlight, and as she straightened her cramped back and looked out over the lower pasture, she found Parker on his knees, his shoulders slumped, his head dropped. Sounds started to trickle back ina”her own breathing and Druid's, both easing, and even Parker's, sounding as exhausted as she felt.

Exhausted, and in no shape to chase after her in any manner.

Brenna grabbed Druid's leash and ran.

Chapter 17.

EHWAZ.