Ann Marie's Asylum (Master and Apprentice Book 1) (36 page)

She couldn’t get Elaine Harkenrider’s cruel, savage expression out of her mind. While she and Dade stood quietly, the woman’s face was still haunting her thoughts.

“I think I’m having trouble now that things have calmed down,” she told him. “What I saw happen to you, what happened tonight, it’s too much. My head is spinning.”

He looked at her warmly, saying, “It will stop spinning eventually. I know from experience.”

“Are you OK?” she asked him.

“I missed my chance at Bernard.”

“They’ll be more chances.”

Dade just nodded.

“Where do you think he’s going?”

“Only the devil knows.”

“Ivy and my mom are doing even better,” she told him, changing the subject. “They’re both downstairs in the hospital unit.” She considered something for a moment before adding, “Ivy is still in and out of it, but she keeps asking for you. In fact, that’s all she’s asking for.”

“They’ll be much better in a few days.”

After some hesitation, she asked him, “What happened to you and Ivy? You know, over there?”

“We saw our conventional human lives. It’s what would have happened without...” He tried to search his mind for the right term. “
It
. Whatever it is Bernard worships.
The parasite
.”

“I can see it,” said Ivy. She was suddenly standing in the doorway and looking at Dade. “The red storm in the sky. It used to be invisible but I can see it all the time now.”

When Ann Marie looked up, all she saw was the usual blanket of stars. “Looks like the normal, regular sky to me,” she said.

“How are you feeling?” Dade asked Ivy.

“Better,” she answered. Her eyes were locked on him. “I was dreaming. I think I dreamt an entire life.” She took his other side by the railing. “It was our life. I miss it. I don’t know how you can miss something that never was.”

“You can,” Dade told her. “Sometimes those are the things we miss the most.”

Ivy gazed at him like just the sight was bringing her nourishment. For her, the moment was the most joyful reunion. While Ann Marie stood watching, Ivy clenched Dade’s hand and rested her head on his shoulder.

Dade Harkenrider was now focused on something else, something above them in the sky.

The sight of Ivy and Dade together made Ann Marie’s stomach wrench like it had just been pumped full of hot magma. She felt suddenly unwanted in a place that had come to feel like her first real home. So, she followed an impulse that felt like aggression. She reached for the fingers of Dade’s other hand and wrapped them up in hers. Ann Marie tried to pretend Ivy wasn’t there.

“What are we going to do next?” She asked him. “That coven is still out there.”

He didn’t answer because he and Ivy were staring at something above them.

Their linked hands were making the thing in the sky show itself. The red storm glowed and churned like the three of them were looking up at the hot insides of a volcano. Underneath the glow, there was a glimpse of moving parts, strange structures like insect parts combined with the gears and springs from a mechanical watch. It was as though machines of all kinds had come together and stolen life.

The red storm, the parasite scanned countless red spotlights over the entire city like it was filled with police helicopters. The red rays were beaming into everything. They invaded houses, storefronts, cars, alleys, men, women and children. The glowing parasite covered the entire sky from the Downtown LA across the ocean.

While the three of them watched, Ann Marie felt like the eye of the red storm was staring down at her. The next moment, one of the shafts of light from the red whirlpool beamed straight down and into her heart.

To be continued...