Fire in the Woods (23 page)

He gently stroked both my cheeks with his fingertips and touched his forehead to mine. I soaked him in, rubbing my cheek along his. The heat from his skin burned, but I couldn’t break the contact. I needed to feel him more than I needed to breathe. I needed to be with him, in him, sheltered and protected from everything that scared me. Was that so much to ask? To freeze this moment? To live in his arms forever? To pretend that everything was okay?

David’s hands wove through the back of my hair. His eyes, deeper and bluer than I’d ever seen them, gazed into mine, consuming me and leaving me breathless. Was it possible he felt the same way about me? Did he need my touch as much as I needed his?

His gaze dropped to my mouth, and his lips parted slightly. I drank in his scent, my mind swirling in musk and earth.

Aliens didn’t kiss, but he was thinking about it. I knew he was. Had he enjoyed the feeling of my lips, my tongue? Was he afraid to tell me?

I moistened my lips and brushed them over his. David’s reaction was instantaneous, and gave me my answer. His arms folded around me, his lips searching, his tongue finding. My body succumbed to a whirl of pleasure and need. I sunk into him, became part of him, opened myself in ways I never dreamed possible. This is what I needed. This is what I wanted. Nothing mattered but his touch.

I gasped as he pulled away. My body arched, yearning for more.

David licked his lips and turned from me.

“David?”

He wiped his kiss from my lip with his thumb and stared at his finger. The sadness in his eyes cut through me. “It’s getting cold,” he whispered, as if speaking to his fingers. “Maybe we can make a bed out of some of these leaves and stuff.”

“But David—”

“We can’t do this, Jess.” His eyes blazed. His words sliced through me like a knife. “I’m going home. Tonight. Nothing can change that.”

How could he cut it off like that? I could’ve stayed in that embrace forever, lost in a bliss I never even imagined possible.

For some reason—the way he clung to me when we kissed, the way his hands stroked my skin, or maybe the way he was avoiding my gaze—I knew he felt the same way.

But that didn’t really matter, did it?

I pulled myself together, reminding my stupid heart of who he was, and who I was—and why we were out here. The tickles of attraction and need receded, losing themselves in a wave of practicality. I sighed, missing their warmth.

David was leaving, and my current job was to keep him warm. Period. Nothing else mattered.

After ruffling through the underbrush, I found a rut covered with moss beneath a large log. At least it would be soft. David tossed the log aside, and we worked together to line the crevice with soft ferns and other forest plants.

By the time the sun sank behind the trees, David had already started shivering. I helped him into the makeshift bed, and tucked the leaves around him.

“Are you comfortable?”

A rattle-like giggle ebbed out beneath his shiver. “I guess as best as I can be.”

I eased myself down and covered his body with mine, cuddling as much as I could on the uncomfortable ground. Both of my knees began to throb, pulsing against my jeans. I ran my fingers over my scraped knuckles. It seemed like an eternity since we’d jumped off that train.

David shuddered beneath me. “I have a feeling this is going to be a long night.”

I grit my teeth as the temperature fell, praying David’s ride would come before he froze to death. “You’re going to be fine.” The words sounded rehearsed. Forced. Were they to make him feel better, or myself?

He reached up and ran his fingers through my hair. “It shouldn’t be too much longer, Jess. I can feel a pull in my stomach.”

I looked up. “So, like, they’re here? Can they pick you up before—”

He placed a finger over my lips, silencing me. “They’re not here yet, but they’re close.” He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “They are very close.”

“So, they’re like, calling you? E.T.-phone-home or something like that?”

“I guess. What is this E.T. thing, anyway?”

“Just an old movie. Maggs called you E.T. and it stuck in my head.”

“So, was this E.T. tall, strong, and dashingly handsome?”

I snorted a laugh. “He was definitely cute.”

“How…how…d-did it end?” He stammered with a chill.

I tightened my grip around David, choking back a sob. “E.T. gave the little boy a hug, and he went home.” Tears gathered in my lashes.

“D-do you think we’re going to havvvve a happy ending J-Jess?”

I pressed my cheek against his. “Yes. Definitely.” I only wished I felt as certain as my words.

A twig snapped, jolting me awake. I leaned off David and tucked back my hair. A sweet piney scent filled my nose as the song of crickets answered a cool breeze rustling the trees.

David’s body quaked beneath me. His lips quivered, and he moaned. A pang of guilt seeped into my gut, cutting a painful hole with the realization that my body’s heat wasn’t doing enough. I cuddled around him. “Come on David, warm up.”

Crack.

Silence.

What had happened to the crickets?

The underbrush rustled. I tensed, holding my breath. Wind swished the trees above. A car horn honked far off in the distance.

The muted evening air clung about me as if someone had pressed a pause button. Why was it so quiet?

I screamed as two hands came out of the night, their fingers digging into my flesh. The moon sank behind the clouds, darkening the forest and hiding my captor. My body lifted into the air. My lungs struggled against an overwhelming pressure against my ribs. Held from behind, I struggled and kicked. “Let go!”

My feet dragged across the forest floor as someone hauled me further from David’s shivering form. I twisted and tugged. Another set of arms shot out of the dark and clutched my hands, tying my wrists together with a coarse rope before drawing me into the air.

The pressure against my sides subsided, and I drew in a deep breath. My shoulders throbbed from the strain as my captor maneuvered my hands over a tree branch and hung me like a Christmas ornament. “What are you doing? Let me down.”

I trembled as the cloud cover shifted. The trees, like sharp shadows, seemed to reach toward me, watching. A large broad man walked away, his bobbing gait somewhat familiar. A woman adjusted my bindings, her face partially covered by a fuzzy-edged hood.

“What do you want?” I asked.

Her silence hung in the air like a veil. She either didn’t hear me, or didn’t care that I’d spoken. Sweat ran down my temples as she turned and joined her friend. I writhed in my bindings. Was this the end? Had we come so far, only to be caught by…who? Crazies? Drug dealers? Who were these people?

My jailers brushed the dirt with their hands before gathering something from the woods, stacking it on the ground.

“Please, let me go. I didn’t do anything.”

The continued their chore.

The man raised his hand. I flinched as a high-pitched noise blasted my ears. A flash seared my eyes. Orange spots obscured my vision, blotting out what little I could see in the darkness.

Heat rolled over my cheeks, and I blinked repeatedly. The orange spots receded, revealing my wardens standing opposite a large, roaring campfire. My jaw dropped, dumbfounded.

The woman pulled back her hood and shook her head. Long, golden curls spilled on her shoulders. She turned from the fire. Her thigh-length brown jacket rustled as she walked toward David.

“I need to get to my friend. You don’t understand. He’s freezing.”

The blaze gained in height. I turned toward my shoulder, trying to shield my face from the heat. The woman knelt on the ground. Beside her, the broad guy tugged at David’s sweatshirt.

“No! Please don’t do that. He needs to be warm.”

The man swiped back his black hood. Light hair flew up from his head in static wisps. He rubbed his cheek, smudging dirt across his wrinkled skin.

A sinking feeling drew my fear deeper within as I recognized the crazy old man in the coat that I’d seen in the woods a few days before
.
Stunned, my gaze moved to the woman. Her features flickered in the light of the flame. Recognition sent a shiver through my bones…the crazy guy’s daughter.

I struggled to breathe as my heart worked to beat out of my chest. “Please don’t hurt him.”

The girl lifted David’s head into her lap, and brushed back his bangs. Her cohort leaned close to David’s face and turned to the side as if to hear his breathing.

She whispered a few words, and the man harrumphed. He lifted David from the ground, and carried his limp body toward the flames.

“Stop! Don’t.” I struggled. The braided strands around my wrist dug and ate away at my flesh. “Let him go.”

The man dropped to one knee and laid David beside the fire. I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding, and searched for any movement from the boy who’d become more dear to me than I ever imagined possible. The light from the flames flickered across his still form.

Please be okay, David
.

The woman knelt beside them and withdrew a pencil-sized silver rod from her pocket. The metal glistened in the firelight. She tapped the edge, and the pencil lit up.

What was that?

A line of yellow light shone across David’s face, and scrolled down his shivering form like a price gun at a supermarket.

“What are you doing to him?”

My captors murmured to each other. Their heads bobbed in nods and shakes before the man stood and unzipped his jacket. He spread the coat over David, wafting the fire in my direction.

The blond woman watched, nodded, and turned to me. Her gaze locked with mine as she approached.

Her eyes…so blue.
No, not blue—turquoise, like David’s.

She slipped her hands into her jacket pockets. “His temperature has dropped twenty degrees. He’s dying. If you could keep quiet, I might be able to save him.”

My heart skipped a beat. My lips formed letters, but words didn’t follow.

Her eyes narrowed, as if gaging my reaction. She crinkled her nose before gliding back to David’s side.

Her partner sat by the fire, holding his hands close to the flames. My eyes widened. The old man didn’t have any pinky fingers.

“You two are the scientists, aren’t you? You are the people David was signaling before his plane crashed.”

The woman tucked the jacket around David and looked up. “This is the pilot?”

My gaze flicked between her and David. “Yeah.”

She raised her eyebrows. “Well that explains some things.”

“
Curz cum qhoz puellima est
,” the man said. His eyes remained fixed on the fire. His lips thinned to a straight line.

The woman’s gaze trailed to me. “
Nonz scirb est
.” She removed the old man’s jacket from David, speaking more words I couldn’t understand.

My chest twisted into a pretzel as the man rose to his knees and placed his palms on David’s chest. The woman squeezed David’s cheeks, forcing his mouth open. A clear vial caught the firelight as she tilted it toward his lips. A drop formed along the rim before disappearing into his mouth.

David choked and sputtered. Dark liquid ran from his mouth in an incessant stream, staining his lips and cheek.

“Oh, God! Is that blood?”

The man grumbled and leaned down on David’s ribcage.

“Stop it. You’re hurting him.”

David’s body arched. Dull, emotionless eyes sprang open. They stared in my direction, but held no sense of memory, no sense of recognition, no sense of David.

My heart sank, swirling into recesses further than oblivion. “Oh, God. Oh, God, David!”

He kicked madly, thrashing toward the fire.

The man bellowed in his own language as the woman fumbled for David’s legs. David’s foot flailed, kicking her in the face twice. Dark fluid ran from her nose, pooling in the crook of her mouth. The older man grabbed David’s ankles, pulling him from the edge of the fire.

“
Opules ahsah qanon rezpoadena est
,” she said, reaching into her pocket. A blue vial sparkled in her hand.

The old man shouted back at her in their own tongue.

She mumbled in response. Her fingers squeezed David’s mouth open again. His body struggled against them. Vacant eyes glazed past me.

“Please, David, please…” I whispered.

A drop touched his lips. The woman stopped the vial and shoved it back into her pocket. David’s eyes blinked twice, before rolling into the back of his head. A deep gurgle erupted from his throat, and the shaking ceased.

The man stood. The woman ran the light pen over David’s forehead and smiled. She murmured a few words to the old man, who mumbled and sat near the fire, his back to me.

The woman tapped David on the forehead and replaced the jacket over his torso.

I twisted and tried to get a better view. “What happened? Is he okay?”

The man spat foreign words carrying a menacing tone.

The woman looked up. “He wants you to be quiet.”

“I’m sorry. I just want to know what’s going on.”

The man abruptly stood, but his friend grabbed his arm and wrenched him down. His eyes bored through me, daggers piercing my skin. I backed as far away as the ropes allowed. Unanswered questions swirled in my mind, but for the first time in my life, I kept them to myself. My gaze settled on David as I leaned back against the tree and waited.

***

Cranky-silver-haired-guy grumbled and picked up a piece of fruit from the ground. He rubbed his thumbs across the tender flesh, smelling the fuzzy skin.

“That’s called a peach. David and I picked them before we…”

He gnawed off a bite of the fruit.

“Wait. That’s all we have!”

Cranky stood and approached me. He leaned close and took another bite, purposely crunching the fruit in my ear. I scowled at him as he swallowed.

He tilted his head to the side. “You covered him with your own body,” he said.

Huh?
“Wait, you speak English, too?” I adjusted my weight, giving my left foot a rest.

He didn’t answer me.

“Of course. I tried to help him. He was cold.”