Eerie (14 page)

“My teeth!” another yelled, showing a gaping hole where two incisors should have been, and Fin pointed at him in reprimand.

“I told you not to panic. The school will fit you with falsies, so calm down. Now everyone get ready for landing.”

Fin dropped the mike, which swung on its cord like a pendulum, and he staggered to the back of the plane, where Hailey helped him stuff his sleeping bag into his backpack.

“Where'd you go?” he asked her, and Hailey looked up at him.

“What?”

“While we were in the Aether. You were here. And then you were gone, Hailey. Where'd you go?”

“Oh, I went outside,” she said nonchalantly.

Fin studied her eyes. “How?”

Hailey shrugged and went back to packing his sleeping bag. “I don't know. I was getting scared, so I started counting to eight like you said and then I was outside lying in the grass, looking at the sky with . . .”

“With what?”

She stole a glance at Asher.

“With
him
?” he spat with a scowl.

“Keep your voice down,” she whispered with wide eyes. “I think so.”

Honestly, she hoped so. Her memory was a little fuzzy.

“Hailey—” He jerked his backpack out of her hands.

“What?” she demanded, but the only response she got was an angry glare and noisy breathing. Fin threw the backpack zipper closed with enough force to tear the fabric. Out of a separate compartment, he pulled a pair of goggles then strapped himself into his jump seat.

Hailey followed.

“What's that for?” she asked as he donned his eye protection.

Fin let out an edgy laugh. “You'll see.”

As Hailey fumbled with her harness, the floor opened under her, and she slipped out of her seat and out of the Luftzeug, swinging her arms at Fin, who made a frantic grab for her and missed.

Before she could scream, she was falling through the sky, plummeting to Earth, and the ground was coming up fast.

Chapter Seventeen

Whipped

“It may be he shall take my hand,

And lead me into his dark land.”

- Alan Seeger, I Have a Rendezvous with Death

Down Hailey fell for several seconds until a painful jolt stopped her descent at about 3 feet above the ground, where she hovered briefly with very wide eyes before landing with a giant splash in a cold, marshy puddle.

She sat shivering in that puddle, which came up to her waist, holding onto her face with trembling hands, saying over and over, “Am-I-dead-am-I-dead-am-I-dead . . .”

“No.” A soothing voice rang through her panic.

Slowly, she uncovered her eyes to find an outstretched hand. The hand was connected to an arm and that arm belonged to
Him
. Staring up at his purple eyes, she tried to think of something intelligent to say. Were it not for those purple eyes, he might pass for a regular grad student, looking slightly standoffish and oozing authority. Though his outstretched hand seemed more like an order than an invitation, Hailey trusted him immediately, as if she'd known him for ages, and she placed a quivering hand in his.

“Didn't I spill a drink on you?” she blurted. It was the only thing that came to mind.

He smiled as he helped her stand on wobbly legs on the spongy ground.

She was shaking all over—mostly from fright, but also from the chill. Frigid, marshy Alaskan bog water soaked her from the chest down. Asher took her other hand in his, but when she lost her balance, he snaked an arm around her waist and pulled her close. An incredible, gorgeous heat radiated from him, which hurried her chills away.

“I'm really sorry about that drink—whoa,” she said as her legs tried to crumple again, but he caught her and hugged her closer. “I wanted to apologize properly, but when I came out of the ladies room, you'd already gone.” There. She'd been waiting months to get that off her conscience.

Asher simply held her by the waist with one hand, caressed her hand with the other and gazed adoringly into her eyes.

“So, you're Asher,” she said, and her stomach tied itself into a knot.

“You remember me then.”

Hailey nodded. “Of course.” How could she not, he was her first kiss. At least, she thought that was real. Biting her lip, she tilted her head down. She could feel herself blushing and hoped he wouldn't see.

He dipped his head and lured her eyes once again into his.

“Will you tell me what you're thinking?” he asked.

I want you to kiss me again.

She felt a moment of unnatural courage and seized it. “Did you kiss me, Asher? I mean, was that real, or was it a dream?”

She couldn't believe she'd said it.

“It was both,” he said.

Hailey waited, holding her breath to see if he would kiss her again, but he made no move to close the gap between them.

“It is good to see you,” was all he said, and Hailey's face fell. Her pocket . . .her photo!

“Oh, no—Holly's picture!” Stepping away from Asher, she cautiously pulled it out. “Oh no . . .no . . .” It was wet and ruined and barely holding itself together in Hailey's hands.

Very carefully, Asher took the picture from her and held it between his hands. When he gave it back, it was—dry. Completely restored.

Hailey smiled. “Would you carry this for me until I dry off?” she asked as she closed his hand on it. If she put it back in her pocket, it would just get ruined again.

“Of course.” He tucked it away and took her hand again. Leading her through the alders and around patches of Jurassic jagger bushes and giant puddles, Asher kept hold of Hailey's hand, lifting her with ease over downed spruce trees and across rocky streams. Every move he made appeared effortless, and Hailey honestly couldn't tell if his feet actually made contact with the ground.

She couldn't say the same for her own feet. At least twice, she had to ask him to stop and help extract her shoe from a mud hole after it got sucked off.

While Asher dug her right sneaker out again, Hailey stood balanced on one foot, though she didn't know why she bothered—both of her feet were already filthy and water-logged and numb, and she doubted the one pair of shoes she'd brought with her to Alaska would still be wearable in the morning.

“Would you like me to carry you?” Asher asked as she struggled to tie her soggy laces with freezing fingers.

She didn't know what to say. Of course she wanted him to carry her. But even more so, she didn't want to be a wimp. “How far is it?” That seemed like a fair question.

“Two hours at this pace. Five minutes if I carry you. Three seconds if I whip you.”

“That sounds . . .painful?” She was fairly certain she didn't want to be whipped, but . . .three seconds. And she wouldn't arrive on campus in Asher's arms like a damsel in distress—it sounded like a good compromise, though she wasn't sure what “whip” meant, and it sure didn't sound pleasant.

Smiling slightly, Asher removed a mud blob from Hailey's forehead.

“It won't hurt you. I can . . .propel you so that you'll land close to the others. They're ahead of us and less than a half mile now from campus.”

“You mean, like,
throw
me?” Even though it sounded cold, scary, and painful, after surviving a fall from the Luftzeug, Hailey was willing to take Asher's word for it and try a whip.

She heaved a decisive sigh and said with a shrug, “Okay, Asher. Whip me.”

Asher wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her against his side. “I'll see you soon,” he whispered against her ear, and with a crack that sounded more like thunder than a whip, the air at Hailey's back pressed in, and a familiar heaviness enveloped her, static electricity, raising her hair.

What happened next felt an awful lot like a gigantic shock—like she'd moonwalked across a winter rug and bumped into a metal shelf. She arched against the jolt of Asher's throw, squeezing her eyes shut as the foliage rushed past, her body hurtling through the air. Only when her feet hit the ground did she open her eyes again. Sure enough, there she was, holding her arms out as she regained her balance and standing in the middle of a gaggle of students, who looked even soggier and muddier than she did. Several trudged along naked and shoeless, clinging to their sleeping bags, and one of them had a leafy twig tangled in his filthy rainbow hair.

Hailey tried not to laugh, thinking of Holly's toothbrush.

“You've got a twig in your hair,” she told him as she partially weaved it out.

“Don't touch me,” he snapped, and Hailey started.

Jeez, she was just trying to help the kid.

Asher appeared at her side, and the rainbow waddled hurriedly away.

“I have that effect on people,” Hailey said, and Asher glared after him.

“He won't bother you again,” he said darkly.

“Oh, he wasn't bothering me.” She looked down to brush herself off, and when she looked up, Asher was gone.

“I've never seen Asher actually talk to a student before,” a soaking wet and filthy Fin said, stumbling over to help her. He had a clean spot in the shape of goggles around his eyes, and looking dead serious, he added, “You know he's not human.”

Raising her eyebrows, she mouthed the word, “Oh.” Of course she knew. But she didn't know Fin knew. She thought for a second, and then she baited him. “Well, what is he?”

“Don't care,” was his answer. He quickened his pace.

“You don't care?”

“No...” he sang, sounding highly irked.

Hailey tripped over an alder bush, struggling to keep up with him.

“Oof! How can you not care about what Asher is?”

“There are a lot of ‘not humans' here, Hailey.”

Hailey stopped and gawked after him. Then she ran to catch up. “Wait! What other ‘not humans' are there?”

Ignoring that question, he fired one back at her. “Why didn't you land with the rest of us?”

As if she'd planned to fall out of the Luftzeug!

“The floor opened under me,” she said, her voice rising, “and you didn't grab me!”

“Oh,” he said in a slightly more casual, yet still heated tone. “Well, where'd you land?”

“On my bum.”

“Did you get hurt?”

“No,” she told him, “but it was scary, and I really have to pee now.”

Fin went from irate to highly amused, instantly. “You're a goofball,” he said chuckling. “We're less than a minute out. When we get to Chinook Hall, throw your shoes and socks in the mud room, grab a pair of house-shoes off the rack and head straight to the back of the hall for the toilets.”

“Thank you,” she breathed.

“I'll be heading that way too,” he told her with raised eyebrows. “Leech-check.”

“Leeches?” She tried not to think of slimly little worms crawling all over her. “How was your landing?” she asked quickly to get her mind off Alaska's creepy-crawlies.

“Rough. But that's normal. The pilots are a lot gentler with the women,” he said. “Most of the men ended up in the lake this time—hence the leeches. Thankfully everyone splashed down near shore, so no drownings this year.”

Hailey's mouth fell open. “Students have died?”

“Yeah,” he said indifferently, “but only temporarily.”

Hailey opened her mouth to ask what the heck ‘only temporarily' meant, but Fin cut her off. “Chinook Hall.” He pointed to a giant log building in a clearing up ahead, and Hailey's bladder coaxed a sprint.

She had her shoes and socks off before she opened the door to the mud room. Snatching a pair of booties from a rack next to the door, she zipped inside, passed by a four-story stone fireplace, ran under seven wrought-iron chandeliers, down the central hallway and all the way to the back, where the restroom doors were marked with moose silhouettes—one with antlers and one without.

She picked the one without antlers, crossed her fingers and opened the door, finding (much to her relief) two female . . .humans, she guessed—parked in front of the mirror.

“I guess the parafreaks are here,” one said after Hailey closed her stall door.

Hailey wondered what a parafreak was and if that was a bad thing.

“Let's get out of here before they muddy the place up,” the other answered, and Hailey listened to the bathroom door shut behind them. When she stepped up to the sink to wash her hands, she recoiled at her reflection in the mirror.

“Good lord,” she whispered as she turned on the water. “Definitely a bad thing,” she murmured.

With the exception of her booties, every part of her was covered in dirt, bugs, and other unidentifiable ick. The whites of her eyes really stood out. She looked like a mud monster.

Did I really meet Asher looking like this?
Hanging her head and squeezing her eyes shut, she gripped the sink, torturing herself by rethinking every word she'd said to him.

Oh, it's no wonder he didn't kiss me again
, she whimpered inside. At least she could wash her hands and face now. If only Tomas were around to put her hair in order.

She tapped her finger on the sink.

“I wonder . . .” she said out loud as she peered into the mirror. “Tomas,” she called softly. She peeked over her shoulder to make sure no one was watching her speak to her reflection.

“Tomas?” she said again, but the only supernatural thing in the glass was a crazy-haired mud monster. “Oh, if only you could come here, Tomas,” she begged quietly.

“HIER” came through in frosty letters on the mirror.

She perked up.

“Tomas? Is that you?”

“SCHMUTZIG” followed in bigger letters and a familiar set of hands shot out of the glass and shoved Hailey's head into the sink.

“Gently,” she told him, and he actually handled her with a little more finesse as he rinsed her hair. It took several minutes and a whole bottle of ghost shampoo, but when Tomas was done, Hailey had a neat, clean, delightfully perfumed and trendy bun.

“Thanks,” she said, and Tomas frantically waved his hands at her through the glass.

“What is it?”

“D.O.P.P.L.E.R.” frosted across the mirror.

“What about them?”

“Gefahr”

Hailey mouthed the word, but she didn't know what it meant and shook her head, adding “Gefahr” to “Schatz” on her mental list of Tomas-words to look up. She was pretty sure they were German.

“Tomas, I'm sorry, that's way beyond the German I know. I have to look it up. Is there anything else?”

“bin entwichen” appeared briefly but long enough for Hailey to take a mental picture of it, and then Tomas saluted and disappeared as another mud monster waddled through the ladies room door wrapped in a wet sleeping bag.

Hailey nodded to her and exited.

Other ParaScience students were shuffling into Chinook Hall from the porch. Falling in step behind them, she entered a large banquet room opposite the fireplace, finding inside no fewer than fifty round tables, each set for fifteen people. Near the door, she found one occupied by only five students, all soggy and dirty.

“May I join you?” she asked with her most friendly smile.

Nobody answered.

Instead, they all stiffened and stared, either at random objects around the room or at their place setting. One whispered something sharply to the student on his left. That student looked over his shoulder and whispered to the student sitting on his left. Then without a word, without even glancing at Hailey, all five of them slid their chairs back, got up, walked away, and sat down at another table, leaving Hailey, shoulders drooped and sitting alone at the giant table for fifteen.

A sudden pang for her big sister pushed a lump into her throat. This was not how she'd envisioned her college experience.

Drumming her fingers on the table, she looked around. It was easy to see the students had divided themselves up. The filthy ones sat together, as did the clean, yet scruffy-looking ones in tattered flannel shirts and denim overalls. In one corner of the room, a large group of very attractive, very clean, very well put together students in name-brand outdoor wear sat with their noses in the air. She guessed those to be the Pre-Med students.