Between Light and Dark (9 page)

"Yeah, well, Fiona's a tough cookie."

Axiom sipped one of the sodas Wayne had packed and
savored the sticky sweetness of the liquid as it slid down his
throat. He enjoyed the way it tickled his nose and burned.
A strange yet exhilarating sensation.

Thinking of strange yet exhilarating things, Axiom
glanced at the back seat where Laurell sat, arms crossed, eyes focused on the landscape. What thoughts raced
through her mind? He had studied her extensively in the
Light Realm, yet in many ways she remained a mystery.

"I have to go to the bathroom." Laurell's voice broke
into his thoughts.

Wayne raised his eyebrows in question, and Axiom nodded.

"We should stop. This vehicle will need fuel," Axiom
told him. Several miles later, a gas station appeared on the
right. Wayne slowed the car and pulled up to the nearest
pump. In front of them sat a red pickup truck, jacked up
and apparently awaiting a tire change. The driver was
nowhere to be seen. A faded brown sedan with NRA stickers on the back pulled up next to them. The couple inside
could be heard arguing heatedly, their strained voices carrying through the closed windows. The man adjusted his
baseball cap and raised his hand to the woman, who cringed
and pressed herself against the passenger door.

"Go get me another six-pack, woman. And stop your
whining," the man drawled. The woman exited the car and
hurried toward the store. The fluorescent lighting at the gas
pumps highlighted the ugly bruise on her cheek. Axiom's
jaw clenched.

Wayne's cell phone rang. Wayne picked it up and handed
it to Axiom after a moment. "It's Fiona. She wants to talk to
you directly. She still sounds hesitant about our visit."

Axiom motioned toward Laurell. "Keep an eye on her."
Laurell glared her annoyance, but she followed Wayne dutifully toward the restrooms.

"Yes," Axiom said into the phone.

"We need to talk about the girl before you get here."

"What do you wish to discuss?"

"I need to know what arrangements should be made."

"Arrangements?"

"For sleeping."

"She should reside with me when she ovulates. Until
then she can have her own quarters."

"Okay," Fiona agreed.

Axiom went straight to the point. "You could have asked
Wayne about the arrangements. Why did you really wish to
speak with me?"

"I need some assurance from you that my priests and
priestesses will be safe."

Axiom ran one hand through his hair. He empathized
with her fear, but the situation was beyond his control.

"You know I cannot guarantee anything. My powers remain limited while I am in the flesh, but I will do all I can
to ensure the safety of you and your coven." Fiona was
silent. He thought she had hung up the phone, but then he
heard her soft sigh.

"I apologize for my weakness. I just didn't expect to lose
Anne." Fiona's voice broke as she spoke her sister's name.

"It is not weakness you display; it is caution. However,
you must remember your own power, Fiona."

"Yes," she agreed. "The circle is cast about the property.
We'll need to cut a door when you arrive. Call me when
you're close."

The phone clicked and went silent. Axiom glanced out
the window. Baseball Cap Man climbed from his car.

"What's taking so long? Stupid woman," the man mumbled to no one in particular and staggered toward the convenience store.

Axiom watched him disappear inside the store. What was
keeping Wayne and Laurell? Axiom's gut twisted. Something was wrong. He bolted from the car just in time to see
Wayne racing across the parking lot toward him, eyes wide
with panic.

"She's gone."

Laurell's heart slammed against her ribs like a jackhammer
into concrete. She moved quickly through the trees, pushing branches out of her way and glancing behind her every
so often, expecting Wayne or Axiom to be there. The moon
peeked out through an opening in the trees above, bright
enough to illuminate her way across the uneven terrain. She
had no idea where she was going.

Wayne had followed her to the bathroom, but fortunately
had not insisted on coming inside with her. He hadn't questioned the backpack she carried with her, but she'd had her
menstruation story ready in case.

Laurell pulled her jacket tighter. The night air had
started to seep through the wool peacoat. When it seemed
she'd been on the move for at least a half hour, she paused
to rest against a towering oak to catch her breath. She
wished she were in better shape.

A ripple of energy started at the base of her spine and
crawled to her neck. Goose bumps surfaced on her arms. A
moment later, the yearning burst forth, and a wave of need
washed over her. Her limbs went weak. A deep, painful
ache settled between her legs. Her flesh pulsed, and her
womb throbbed.

Laurell moaned. Her legs shook and protested with every
step. Her mind filled with Axiom and she could think of nothing else but his touch, his scent, his kiss. She slid to
the ground at the base of the huge oak tree.

There is no other way to find her quickly. Axiom knew this,
yet the moment he released his hold on the yearning and
pushed, forcibly, past Laurell's warding, he regretted it. The
sensations were agonizing.

"Shit. You're sending a homing beam to the damn Umbrae!" Wayne shouted. As if on cue, Axiom caught a movement out of the corner of his eye. The air became heavy,
weighted.

He turned to see Baseball Cap Man eyeing them from the
doorway of the store. The man clutched a six-pack of Bud
and watched them with narrowed eyes. Something in his
gaze wasn't quite right, a strange mix of vacancy and focus.
An impossible combination, yet one that was all too familiar to Axiom. The hair on the back of his neck stood up.

"A Finder," Wayne muttered, and Axiom looked away
from the man long enough to glance at his friend and realize he'd made the same connection.

Wayne reached into his jacket and pulled out a .40caliber Glock, clip already in place. He held the weapon
against his side, half-hidden.

Baseball Cap tilted his head and nodded as though communicating with an unseen entity before he shrugged and
strode toward them, the six-pack falling from his grasp and
making a loud pop as it hit the ground. The gas-pump shelter's fluorescent light glinted off the metal of the gun the
Finder pulled from his jacket. He lifted it and aimed at Axiom. Axiom reacted quickly, silently cursing the humanness of his body, which would not be impervious to bullets,
while at the same time feeling grateful for the speed with
which the god part of him could move his limbs.

He dropped to the ground and rolled toward their car
just as the bullet whizzed past his head with a hiss. The air
vibrated as Wayne fired a shot at the Finder. The Finder
took a hit to the shoulder, but kept moving toward Axiom,
seemingly oblivious of Wayne and his gun. The Finder had
already taken aim again at Axiom's head.

Axiom reached behind himself, fumbling for a weapon.
He would not kill a human if he could avoid it. Maiming
was another thing altogether. Wayne took a second shot.
This time the bullet connected with the Finder's firing
arm, causing the man to drop the gun he held. He grunted,
dropped to his knees, and picked up the weapon again,
this time with the other hand. He fumbled with the gun
while his wounded arm hung limply at his side, oozing
blood.

The Finder had almost gotten the hang of using the gun
with his left hand when Axiom's fingers closed around a cold
metallic object. A tire iron? Almost too good to be true. A
blessing from Source and the stranger who'd been changing his
tire. Axiom pulled himself to a crouching position and lifted
the makeshift weapon. He sent the tire iron flying.

The Finder's face registered a brief moment of surprise
when the tire iron connected with his head. He crumpled
to the pavement, his weapon issuing a clickety-clack as it
fell from his fingers to the ground.

Wayne rushed to Axiom's side and helped him to his
feet. "I don't think I'll ever get used to how fast you can
move. Poor bastard couldn't have seen it coming. I sure
didn't."

Axiom crouched at the Finder's head and searched for a
pulse. The man would live. Hopefully, he would be out long
enough to give them time to get away and to clear the energy trail of the yearning.

Axiom stood, breathed in deeply, and exhaled. Strange
how his very human body had registered the fear of possible death even while he knew he-a god-could not really
perish. That knowledge had not mattered, though, when
he had been staring down the barrel of the Finder's gun.
The racing of his heart and the blood rushing through his
veins at breakneck speed were very real. He did not much
care for that emotion: fear. Fear caused humans to live in
mediocrity or despair. Fear is the most ungodlike quality one
can experience. Axiom frowned.

"Why would the Umbrae send a Finder and not just come
themselves?" Axiom wondered aloud. "With the amount of
energy I was pouring into finding Laurell ..."

"They ought to have been able to pick up the trail easily
enough," Wayne finished for him, then frowned. "Axiom?"

Axiom tilted his head in response, and Wayne suggested,
"Maybe they weren't worried about killing you so much as
slowing us down."

Axiom grimaced. Or distracting us.

Axiom glanced at the front of the convenience store,
where the attendant and one customer-probably the guy
whose tire iron had been so helpful a moment earliercrept out of the door and glanced furtively around. Behind
them the other half of the Baseball Cap couple scurried
out the door, wailing "Chuckie!" when she saw her husband lying on the ground. The police would not be far
behind.

He closed his eyes and silently willed each of the innocents to forget what had occurred. They would not remember Axiom, Wayne, or Laurell. Their memories would start
with finding Baseball Cap lying on the ground. Baseball
Cap would not recall a thing either, but Axiom needed to
play no part in his amnesia. Humans never remembered what occurred during the time the Umbrae controlled them
as Finders.

"We must retrieve Laurell," Axiom murmured.

Damn him. Laurell thought as many nasty things about Axiom as she could, once the yearning left her body and she
could finally breathe again. She let go of the tree she'd
been clutching and brushed bark from her hands.

Axiom had lied to her about the warding. Perhaps her
ward was useful against the Umbrae, but it proved defenseless against Axiom. He could, and clearly would, break
through it anytime he wished. What else has he lied about?

Laurell clenched her teeth and trudged forward, pushing
branches out of her way. Up ahead, moonlight shone
through the trees and lit a clearing. A bird hopped from
limb to limb above her. She could make out its silhouette
against the moon. She squinted, and a tiny stream of light
flickered off the bird's blue-black wings.

"Hey there," she murmured to the bird. "Can you show
me how to get back to a road?" The bird bent its head and
moved closer to her as though it would answer, but of
course it simply sat. And stared.

It was so dark. She wished she had a flashlight. Her limbs
were still shaky, but she forced herself to keep walking. As
she moved, the trees rustled. She glanced up and saw the
bird flitting from tree branch to tree branch as though it
were following her. Must be lonely.

Laurell had only moved a few more feet when her skin
prickled and the hair on her arms stood up. She froze. The
blood in her veins seemed to slow. She sucked in a breath
and glanced quickly around. No one there. But I'm not alone.
The air was heavy with a presence, something ... not nice.

Her stomach clenched. Her skin crawled with the kind
of sick dread she'd only experienced during her brief astral meetings with the Umbrae. Oh my god. The air in front of
her shimmered and shifted. An outline began to form.

Her breath came out in quick little bursts, leaving white
trails in the chill air and creating an eerie spotlight for the
thing that was emerging out of nowhere. The creature was
so black that despite the dark of the woods, she could see it.
It appeared solid; there was an impenetrability to the thing
that made the night air seem thin and bright in comparison. The creature hung in the air, just in front of her. The
smell of sulfur filled her nostrils. Long, crooked fingers
reached out toward her, and she backed slowly away.

Shit. I can't outrun the Umbrae. She turned to try anyway,
but something bitter and frigid filled her lungs, stopping
her. She couldn't breathe. She gasped for air and her vision
filled with all-consuming blackness. I take it back. I'd rather
stay with Axiom. Live. These thoughts, fractured and frantic,
raced through her mind. She clawed at the air in front of
her but the thing had no form to grab on to. Her awareness
narrowed to the burning in her chest and her body's struggle
for oxygen. She closed her eyes, willing the pain to stop.