Leviathan (Fist of Light Series) Page 14

“There's no point lamenting what you cannot change. Deal with the situation to the best of your ability and things will right themselves. Or they'll crash and burn so fast we won't have to worry about it.”

  “At least there's that,” I centered my gaze on the glimmering lights and thought dark thoughts.

  — Chapter 13 —

  I latched on to Jas' back leg, trying to slow his descent and stop him from slamming face first into the ground for a second time in less than twenty-four hours. Batting a gust of Air backwards at the chute, I stopped sliding forward and righted myself before falling over. Quickly, before my luck took a turn for the worst and I found myself being pulled along again, my arms latched around his waist and pulled him down. My breath got knocked out of me as we fell hard onto cement, the added weight of an unconscious Jas bearing me down further. I allowed myself to breathe noisily for a few seconds as the parachute settled down on top of us. Once a suitable breathing rate had been regained and ribs checked for cracks, I shoved the dead weight off me and got to work undoing the slew of straps and buckles with the help of a nearby streetlight.

  “You two all right in there?” Kathryne's light, amused tone sounded from a few feet away.

  “Fine,” I grumbled, finishing up. “Get this thing off us.”

  The enfolding material of the parachute flapped and fluttered for a few seconds before it was torn away, revealing the surrounding terrain. Lights sparked, highly inadequate ones, but they showed what there was to see, which wasn't much. Montana is sparsely populated, so I wasn't expecting a highly active nightlife. No cars had gone by during our maneuvers, so that was good news. We had come in casual as day along the strip on Main street, figuring it was as good a place as any. The tricky part had been getting Jas down safely, but that hadn't gone too bad.

  “This place is a ghost town,” Herk said, walking back from his position as lookout.

  Sitting back on my heels, I rubbed tiredly at my eyes. It had been a long day and still a longer night lay ahead. “We need some wheels and a place to crash. I'd like to just shack up somewhere, but we've gotta put some distance between us and whatever might be on our tail. Ideas?”

  “I'd think you have the most experience,” Kathryne teased.

  “Funny.” I sported a tired smirk. “Fine. Let's move towards the residential areas and get a look at our options.”

  “I'm thinking a RV,” Herk said.

  I mulled that over for a second. “Might work. No matter what, we need something that isn't going to scream suspicious everywhere we go. And anyways we'll have to ditch the wheels soon for another pair.”

  “Let's get going then. I'm freezing.” Kathryne shivered and pulled her cloak around her small frame.

  I smiled but didn't dare offer her my jacket and wouldn't have been able to anyways with Jas on my back. She would only see the gesture as an insult, and I wasn't about to be stomped on any more than necessary. Plus, I didn't have much of a shirt left underneath. My suspicions were confirmed when Herk made the error of offering his coat, which was coldly declined. Kathryne might have noticed the slightly upturned corner of my mouth and me watching her out of the corner of my eyes, but I couldn't help myself. We plodded away along the boulevard, our breath fogging up, hands under armpits to retain body heat. It took us a good half hour or so to get to where we wanted to be, while all the while I regretted not landing us closer to our goal. My shoulders and back burned from the constant pressure of Jas, but I wasn't about to ask for any help.

  Each step became an effort of will, fighting my body’s demand for rest. “All right. Let's find something quick and get outta dodge. I'm not in the mood to deal with a bunch of angry vampires.”

  We walked in silence for a time before Herk spoke. “Nice cozy SUV over there. What is that, a Tahoe?”

  “It's red.” Kathryne grimaced. “Couldn't pick a worse color to be driving around in. Especially if it’s stolen.”

  “Beggars can't be choosers, I guess.” I shrugged Jas off my shoulders and handed him to Herk.

  Instant relief flooded my body and I resisted the urge to sigh in pleasure. Feeling bad about being brought to this point, my numb hands got to work and opened the driver’s side door. Not surprisingly, the door opened without a problem and no alarm was triggered. People around these parts probably didn't worry much about people stealing their wheels, considering the type of community this had to be. Unfortunately, it only took me a few seconds to find that they weren't unconcerned enough to leave the keys in the ignition. Tilting my head and cracking my neck, I decided against the usual approach and pulled a throwing knife from my jacket. Meanwhile, the passenger and one rear door opened, admitting Kathryne in the front and Herk with a motionless Jas.

  Each key is tailored to your car, its ridges interlocking with the mechanisms in the ignition, essentially a coded piece of metal. All newer vehicles were equipped with electronic ignitions, rigged to start in the specific scenario when the correct key is inserted. My plan was to shove in a conductor and fry the code, turn the makeshift key and start the car. Figuring I wasn't going to get anywhere by sitting around and waiting for the owners of this fine vehicle to voice their complaints, I slammed the dagger into the key slot. Putting my hand over the exposed metal and closing my eyes, I took a deep breath. I'd expended a good deal of energy getting us here, far more than I'd expected when the plan with the parachutes was thought up. That, coupled with my recent brushes with death in the arena, hadn't given me much time to recover my reservoir of power.

  “You sure you know what you're doing?” Kathryne leaned over and glanced at my choice of tool dubiously.

  “I've got it,” I told her, closing my eyes again.

  The lightning came with ease. I hardly needed to ask these days before it came running. It traveled down the length of the dagger and into the ignition. Figuring I'd done enough, I turned the makeshift key in time with an additional pulse of lightning. Almost in protest of the underhanded start, the engine coughed, hardly turning over.

  “Great. Now we're going to have to deal with those guys,” Hector said as a light in the house was flipped on.

  “I've got this under control. She just needs a second try, that's all.” I tried again, crossing mental fingers and toes.

  I breathed a sigh of relief along with the others when the engine turned over and started up. Grinning like a child on a joy ride in his parents’ car, I jammed the car into reverse and slammed on the accelerator, just as a man burst out the front door with a shotgun.

  “Go, go, go!” Kathryne slammed on the dashboard.

  Putting the car into drive and gunning the engine, the tires squealed as we shot into the street and down the road. I could hear the colorful curses of the owner following us down the road, accompanied by an explosion of sound that could only be the shotgun going off. Luckily, he either missed, or wasn’t angry enough to put holes in his car.

  “That was a close call,” Herk said, his head fixed on the sprinting form out the back window.

  “Let's just hope we'll have a lead on whatever police he puts on our tail. Looks like we have another problem to deal with,” Kathryne stated.

  “Just one more on the pile of problems we already have on our plate,” I laughed.

  Falling back into my seat and wiping some sweat off my brow, I found us a highway by trial and error. Kathryne pulled a map out of the glove box and acted as navigator.

  “We'll drive until the first rays of light break over the horizon. We might even need to go so far as sleeping during the day and driving at night. Maybe a little extreme, but we might not have any other choice. Those guys aren't just going to let us walk away without some form of retaliation.”

  Snoring in the backseat informed me of just how much Herk had been paying attention. Chuckling under my breath, I turned the AC on so I wouldn't nod off. I'd have liked to turn on the heat, but then we'd likely end up in a ditch on the side of the road. We passed some cars, but they were few and far between. The only thing t
hat kept me awake was the assurance that dawn was only a few hours away, and Kathryne's bright-eyed presence beside me.

  “I've been assessing the status of Jas' condition through our link.” Jeeves flashed in the backseat and peered at the catatonic shape of my friend.

  “And?” I kept my voice barely above a whisper, but Kathryne's eyes bolted open from their vacant stare.

  “He seems to be entrenched in some internal battle.” I saw Jeeves lean back into the seat and run his fingers through his hair tiredly. “This would all be fairly routine in normal circumstances. The human half eventually forms a fragile balance with the vampire. They don't exactly coexist peacefully, but they refrain from ripping each other to pieces most of the time. But Jas is nothing resembling normal; he's a living, breathing oxymoron.”

  “And so the two parts of his being are basically at odds with one another. Were and vamp don't mix.”

  Jeeves laced his fingers behind his head and closed his eyes partially. “Precisely. Add to that the added element of the traumatic metamorphosis and you have a recipe for disaster. It's a wonder he hasn't consumed himself already.”

  I punched the heel of my hand impotently against the steering wheel and Kathryne jumped. “Are you saying there's nothing to be done? Am I supposed to just sit here and watch him die? For all we know, the first rays of sun in the morning are going to deliver a toxin to every corner of his body. These could be his final hours!” The counterpoint to our serious conversation was the blissful snoring from Herk.

  “A valid point,” Jeeves said. “Which is why we'll need to enter his tumultuous mind and set things to rights before his head blows off those shoulders.” He jerked a thumb in Jas' direction.

  “Caleb?” Kathryne's wide eyes bored into me. “What's wrong?”

  Taking my eyes off the road, I looked at Jas, noticed his pallid appearance and the purple bruises below his eyes. Parts of his body would twitch suddenly, like he was having some sort of nightmare. I knew we had to go in, that Jas wasn't going to make it as he was. My gut told me there was a reason why there weren't any crossbreeds of Were and vampire roaming the Earth. They all died in the grips of their metamorphosis.

  Haltingly, I told Kathryne of our discovery then included the plan to fix the problem. It all sounded terribly inadequate out loud, because we hardly understood what was going on inside his head. The only thing to do was climb inside that cluttered brain of his and try to put it to rights.

  Before I had even finished explaining, Kathryne was already on board. We didn't discuss the risks, because we both knew they were extreme. As this seemed to be the only possible solution, we didn't have much of a choice.

  “Pull over,” she told me. “I'll drive. Do you need to be in physical contact, or does that matter?”

  I looked over at Jeeves, but he shook his head. “We'll be traveling through the link and into his psyche. Our path lies on a completely different route, but it couldn't hurt to have the extra contact. It may strengthen our attempts.”

  “Might help.” I rolled my shoulders and mentally lamented my tired brain while pulling over on the shoulder of the road.

  I opened the driver’s side door to the sound of a roaring engine, while a pair of lights blinded me. Watching the truck disappear into the night, I listened as the annoying beeping that informed me of the open door commingled with the chirping of grasshoppers. Sucking in a lungful of cool air, I figured I was about as prepared as I was going to get. Kathryne's silent form brushed by me, her clothes lightly brushing up against my own. Her fiery demeanor seemed slightly dimmed, but whose wouldn't after everything we'd been through. We were all exhausted, our success in hiding it varied. Staring at the ground, I followed the countless cracks in the pavement.

  “Everything will work out,” Kathryne squeezed my shoulder reassuringly.

  Nodding, I tried to push all my doubts to the back of my mind. All they would do now would splinter and crack my carefully constructed efforts like the worn road below me. Bringing my tired eyes up to meet hers, I gazed at her seriously. Only then did I see the worry lurking behind her sparkling emerald eyes. Only then did I realize that my efforts needed to be doubled, my outward demeanor strengthened. I took strength from her faith in me, from the warmth of her touch radiating through my body. She was giving me a precious piece of her power, trying to help.

  Gently, I detached her hand from my arm and held it in my own hands. “Keep it. You'll need it. I can't have something happen to you too.”

  Kathryne cracked a smile, and it gave me more strength than I could ask for. “Stupid, suicidal boy.” She punched me on the same spot she’d been holding before.

  For a moment, I thought I sensed the roiling tide of her emotions, but the feeling passed. “We'd better get going.” I reluctantly released her hand and stepped back.

  “Yeah, we should.” She bounced lightly on her heels for a moment before jumping into the car and shutting the door after her.

  Jeeves smirked when I got into the backseat, shaking his head. “Not a word.” I wagged a finger at him.

  His smile took on a condescending cast and I refrained from lashing out at him, since it wouldn't have accomplished anything besides making me look stupid. “I wasn't planning on saying a word, although there might have been a couple choice words that might have been imparted. But I'll leave them to your imagination, because we've got a job to do.”

  “Right,” I put my hand on Jas' clammy forehead.

  I couldn't help but notice the stark difference from holding Kathryne and briefly bemoaned my fate before closing my eyes and concentrating. In a moment, I found myself in the locus of my being, standing before the two nodes of power. Both power sources appeared to have taken on a slightly reddish hue, possibly due to the bonds alterations, or maybe because we were so damn tired. Exhaling, I examined the weighty, wiry web-like link that had firmly attached itself to my node. In turn, Jeeves' power source was linked to mine. Therefore, all three of us were inextricably linked, in a roundabout manner.

  “How exactly are we going to do this?” I looked over at Jeeves dubiously. “It's not like there's some freeway we can ride.”

  Jeeves raised one elegant eyebrow. “Isn't there?”

  “Stop speaking in riddles, man.”

  Jeeves made a sweeping bow that could only be considered sarcastic. “Of course, your highness. As you have hopefully noted, you've the power to influence the inner workings of your mind. Following that principle, much like in the Dreamscape, that link is as you wish it to be. What we are looking at is your subconscious understanding of the connection between you two. In this instance, it’s a vine-like extension that touches upon the nexus. I informed you when we started all those months ago— this entire plane is reliant upon your individual perception of reality. And so it is subject to change if you will it to do so.”

  “Ah.” I squinted and titled my head to one side. “Well then. That link there is actually a wormhole of sorts, a nice, safe connection between our two psyches.”

  “Apply your will to the design, like with any application of your magic, or creation of new landscape or laws in the Dreamscape.”

  I ignored him and continued my verbal description. “All you have to do is jump in and it'll take you straight to the other side. Easy as pie.” I held back a yawn while fighting my psyche to implement this change.

  I wasn't quite sure it was the best idea to do this kind of work when dead tired, but there wasn't much of a choice. Once satisfied with the construction of my design and fairy certain it wasn't going to spit me out in the underworld, I told Jeeves it was ready.

  “How about we flip for it?” I shot a hopeful glance at Jeeves.

  I flipped my quarter into the air, watching it spin end over end. He snatched the coin out of the air before it reached its zenith.

  “No. Absolutely not. You won't be using that trickery on me, boy. It's your design and so it falls to you to test the thing.”

  “All right, all right.” I
put my hands up in surrender. “No need to get testy. See you on the other side.” I flashed a grin at the double meaning.

  Under his narrowed gaze, I ambled up to the link and stared up at it. From up close, it seemed to be a bunch of tendrils interwoven into a singular mass. Shaking out my hands and cracking a few parts unnecessarily, I got my nerves to calm down somewhat. That done, I bent at the knees and propelled myself upward, into the wormhole. A multi-colored array of lights rushed past me, so fast that they all blurred together. Traveling inside a tight channel, there was nothing but blackness pervading the rest of my senses. There might have been a zooming sound filling my ears, but that might have just been my imagination adding in extraneous things for dramatic effect.

  Then, as fast as it had begun, the world righted itself again. I found myself on a field of luscious color, one blood red and the other a forest green. Rolling hills extended infinitely in the distance, lorded over by a stormy sky. This might have been a peaceful place before, but now it was an active war zone. Another couple seconds of searching revealed Jas and his dark double, who was whispering sweet nothings in his ear below a bloody tree. It looked like I wasn't entitled to sole ownership rights on multiple personality disorder.

  Now that I'd located the central point of this arena, it became clear one side was doing a whole lot better than the other. This might have been the Were's home turf, but the vampire had the upper hand. Bloody hills roiled and expanded, seeking to gain dominion over more and more land, insatiable, ravenous. Sprinting up to the tree, I looked up at the blood-red leaves, soaked in a viscous liquid that left nothing to the imagination. The dark counterpart was implementing a hostile takeover that could only end in tragedy.

  The sky above spat lightning and broke open, spitting rain down onto the roiling hills. Holding up my hand, I made a face when it became obvious that blood was falling in the place of water.

  “This is much worse than I anticipated,” Jeeves rushed up to the tree and the two combatants.