Earth (33 page)

“No, I guess not.” He sighed, his voice was
clearly unhappy, but what could I do about it? “I just don’t like
the idea of you going in there alone,” he said again. I decided not
to argue about it with him anymore. He saw it as me facing down the
boogieman by myself and truthfully, I did too.

We drove up the winding road leading to the
parking lot of the park at the bottom of the mountain in silence.
The bend of the road loomed up ahead of us in the light of my
headlights and I saw the barricade blocking the turn into the
parking lot. I slowed the car to a crawl until I stopped in front
of it.

“Shit,” I said under my breath.

“What the hell is this?” Jodi asked, rolling
down her window, letting the freezing air mingle with the heat from
my air vents. She leaned out a little, squinting in the darkness to
read the note taped to the sawhorse in the middle. “Crap.” She fell
back into her seat, rolling up her window quickly.

“What?” Steven asked, finally coming forward
to hold onto the back of my seat.

“It’s a police barricade to keep people out
of the hiking trails.”

“Or Satan worshipers from performing animal
sacrifices,” I offered.

“So what? Just drive around it,” Steven
said.

“No, a patrol car could be stationed in the
parking lot just waiting for that,” Jodi said.

“Right,” I agreed, cranking the steering
wheel to pull away from the turn. I drove up the road a couple
hundred feet until I found a spot with enough shoulder to fit my
car into it. I cut the engine and we all got out. I watched Steven
climb out of the back and as he was bent forward a necklace spilled
out of his shirt. I caught the pendant at the end and held it up to
see it clearly. He was wearing a rosary.

“Just felt right,” he muttered as if he were
embarrassed. I touched his cheek and tucked the crucifix back
inside his shirt.

“Then it was right,” I whispered and rose up
on my toes to give him a kiss on the cheek. We walked to the trunk
to get our knives out. I showed them both how I had slid the knife
into the sleeve of my left arm so the hilt rested in the palm of my
hand so I could draw it quickly with my right.

“Is it just me or does it seem kind of… I
don’t know, sacrilegious to be using these as weapons?” Jodi asked,
looking at her knife with the fake sapphires set into the hilt,
running her fingers over the stones.

“Yeah, a little. But they’re tools and we’ll
need them to break the seal on the circle to enter it anyway. That
jackass probably won’t think to do that and will just walk into the
circle without its protection around him,” I said, gesturing up the
hill.

“But then so will Tracy,” Steven said.

“Yeah, but once you guys are in you can grab
her and bring her into the circle correctly,” I said. “Ok, Jodi,
you wearing your pentacle?” Jodi wore a simple silver star necklace
so she could wear it more openly in public than a pentagram. She
nodded in answer, her hand automatically reaching for the chain
like a security blanket. “Steven, you brought your rosary. You did
get the holy water, right?”

“Yeah, right here,” he reached into his front
pocket and pulled out an honest to goodness sports water bottle,
the kind with the pop-up lid so you could drink from it without
taking the lid off.

“A water bottle?” I asked before I thought it
through.

“Yeah, that way I have more control if I need
to fling the water out at whatever, I don’t just dump it all in the
first try.” He fished out a second bottle from his other pocket and
handed it to Jodi. “I didn’t get one for you because you said you
didn’t want to look like you had anything on you,” he said
apologetically to me.

“No, you did perfect,” I tried for a
reassuring smile, but didn’t think I was all that successful at it.
I reached out a hand to each of them and they hid their bottles
away in their pockets and took my hands and each other’s hand,
forming a circle of the three of us. We all closed our eyes and
turned our faces up to the sky. I whispered a spell of protection
and guidance to our guardian angels and felt a small breeze swirl
around us. I was suddenly aware of a weight on my back just between
my shoulder blades.

“Our Father, Who art in heaven, Hallowed be
Thy Name,” Steven’s voice came to me in a whisper as I finished my
spell. “Thy Kingdom come. Thy Will be done, on earth as it is in
Heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And forgive us our
trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead
us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen.”

“Amen,” Jodi and I said together. I squeezed
both their hands before I let them go. I took one deep, steadying
breath and turned to face the forest. Could I risk my life to stop
whatever demon might be summoned from the Underworld? Yes. Could I
risk the lives of my two best friends? No. But they weren’t giving
me a choice in the matter. I exhaled and stepped into the
forest.

Chapter 19

Part of me had wanted to trek back up the
road to the parking lot and enter the forest from that point, but I
was afraid Jodi was right and there might be a cop stationed there.
I licked my lips and tried to gauge just how far from the parking
lot we were so I knew when to turn left and continue on. I hated
the thought of being physically separated from Jodi and Steven at
this point. I wanted nothing more than to hold both their hands so
we could mindspeak to each other and keep from getting
separated.

“What did you say?” Jodi’s whisper cut
through the unusually quiet forest. I turned my head to the right
to look at her.

“I didn’t?” I knew the confusion on my face
was as clear as my voice even though she probably couldn’t see it
in the dark.

“I could have sworn I heard you say you
wanted us to hold hands,” she said and we both stopped to stare at
each other. It took Steven a few more moments to realize we had
stopped and came back to us in a rush.

“What’s wrong?” Steven’s voice broke a little
with his fear.

“I don’t know,” Jodi whispered, shaking her
head.

“Dude, I did not say anything out loud, but
that’s basically what I was thinking,” I said, staring intently at
her face.

“Wait, you mean I heard you mindspeak without
touching?”

“I guess?”

“Try again,” Steven urged. I looked at him,
feeling my eyebrows contract and shook my head. How could I try to
do something when I didn’t know how? “I don’t know, just try!”
Steven urged again.

“What?”

“You asked how are you supposed to do
something you don’t know how to do, so I said just try?” In the
nearly nonexistent light I could see the worry and confusion
warring over his face. I laughed as quietly as I could, still
shaking my head. “What?” His voice broke again.

“I didn’t say that out loud!” I grabbed his
arm and shook him in my excitement, but I let go quickly. “Here,
one of you try it!”

Terra?
Yellow hinted at the edges of
Jodi’s thoughts.

“I heard you!” I said, trying with more
effort than should be necessary to keep my voice down.

How did she do it so quickly?
Steven’s
red and disappointed voice drifted to me in the night and both Jodi
and I spun to him.

I heard you!
Jodi echoed my thoughts
in perfect time.

Fae, Drake, can you hear me at the same
time?

Yes!
Both of their voices came to me
in an echo. I felt their excitement like candy melting on my
tongue.

Ok, we need to calm down. Obviously we’ve
opened some kind of channel. Now, since we don’t know how, we need
to be careful with it.
I started pacing between them, trying to
find the open channel I was talking about, and I thought about
earlier in the day when I saw Jodi and Steven’s powers on my arms.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see a tendril of red, glowing
energy dancing along my body off to the right, trailing behind me,
but as soon as I tried to look directly at it, it was gone. I let
my focus slide again and could see the lavender and blue
electricity that led to Jodi off to the left, but I could never
look directly at it.

Ok, I think we connected today at school;
we’ll just have to be careful not to break it,
I thought at
them as I turned to face them now.

How can you know that?
Jodi asked. I
tried to think of an explanation, but before I could think of it in
words, the memories of how I did it were in the front of my mind
and I heard Jodi say a simple
Oh, I think I get it.
I
watched her eyes go soft for a few moments.
Wow, Drake, your
energy really looks like fire. But Terra, I don’t understand
yours.

Why? What’s it look like?
I asked.

Like pure light.
Steven answered for
her, apparently he had received the picture explanation at the same
time Jodi had.
But Fae, you’re like purple and blue and look
like lightening.

Nice,
she thought at us with a
smile.

Ok, we need to go; we’re wasting time.
Just be aware of the open channels in case we get separated.
I
thought and turned from them and headed forward again, dead leaves
and fallen twigs and branches crunching underfoot. I tried to
concentrate on how far we needed to go before we turned to head
straight for the clearing, but as I tried to look at the forest
around us, I realized the danger we were allowing ourselves to walk
into. Not only might we get separated, but we may hike right past
the clearing and Tracy would be lost forever.

Wait a second.
We all three stopped at
the same time and I took a deep breath, planting my feet hip-width
apart and grounded into the earth below me. I opened my palms,
splaying my fingers wide, and opened my power, letting it uncoil
from me in seeking tendrils. I felt the life of the forest around
me, almost buried beneath the cold and damp, but there, pulsing
like a heartbeat.

Finally, after what felt like miles of
searching, I felt the pull of my protective circle in the clearing.
Its power and the power of the curling tendril that reached it felt
like two halves of the same object finally coming back together and
I knew exactly which way to go. I started pulling the power back
into me, gathering it back into my center, when suddenly I felt
burning rage try to tear at me through my wandering power.

My power snapped back into me like a slap in
the face. I staggered backwards a few steps, nearly falling into
the slick leaves and mud. Steven helped me to my feet. I winced,
feeling the actual burn on my skin on my back. I only had a moment
to endure the pain when I recognized the evil that had touched me;
it was the same creature that had attempted to rend me to pieces
all those nights in my nightmares.

Run!
I screamed in my mind, startling
both Steven and Jodi, making them pause. I ripped free of Steven’s
hand and grabbed him by the wrist and pushed at Jodi.
Run!
Fucking run!
I screamed at them and took off, my feet sliding
in the loose mud but I didn’t fall, thank goodness. I pushed
through the trees and bushes but didn’t let them hinder me. I felt
it like a hungry, rabid dog snapping at my back. I had no idea how
far back it was, but I knew every time I tried to figure out where
it was or lost my footing it had always found me and torn through
my skin. Not tonight, damn it, not tonight.

I could hear Steven and Jodi just behind and
to the sides of me, their feet pounding on the ground. Under that
noise I could hear their hearts beating frantically, pushing their
blood through their veins. I could smell the sweat on their faces.
My stomach turned at the scents.

Oh God…

What?
Steven’s voice screamed at me. I
could feel rather than hear that he was afraid I could see
something he couldn’t, or maybe I was hurt, or Jodi. His thoughts
were as erratic as his breathing.

Get away from me! Go! Run!
I screamed
at them and with a burst of adrenaline that had been hiding until
now I forced myself farther away from them, turning sharply to my
left and nearly running right into Steven. He dodged around me and
took off with Jodi instinctively.

Terra, what’s happening?
Jodi’s voice
was quieter than it had been, but I could still hear her well
enough; her fear translated just as well at this distance.
Thankfully the pulse of her heart and the scent of her sweat were
fading and I knew soon I wouldn’t be able to hear it.

It’s hungry and it can smell you guys
through me! Just stay away from me!
Because it had touched my
power, it had felt my connection to Jodi and Steven. This was all I
could do to keep them safe. I could hear my blood rushing in my
ears and my pulse was like something alive in my throat, clawing
its way into my mouth. My lungs burned with battery acid. My
stomach was going to rip open on the next step I took. But in spite
of all of that, my body held. I kept running, feeling the tears in
my eyes from the cold air that tore at my face. My nose was
running, but I couldn’t stop. If I stopped, it would get me and
tear me to shreds and eat the meat from my bones. My stomach
lurched and I pushed those thoughts from my mind. I brought up
shields in my mind, trying to sever the connection I had forged
between me and the thing at my back.

I could taste bile in the back of my throat
and I knew I couldn’t keep this pace up much longer. Each step felt
like I was pulling my foot out of quicksand. I needed another way,
I needed help, but I didn’t have the time or luxury to stop, ground
and center, and square off against this thing. It was rabid and
probably wouldn’t wait to face off with me. If I stopped, it would
simply keep coming. My fear was like a tangible thing and I could
feel it gain energy from my fear, running all the faster for
it.